30,000 students in Naxal districts to be trained to use e-cash

NAGPUR: Gadchiroli and Gondia police, under an initiative of State Anti-Naxal Operations (ANO) cell, are taking the cashless agenda of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the tribal students of Gadchiroli district. The security agencies want to popularize e-banking and cashless payment options using mobile phones among 30,000 students of Naxal-affected districts of eastern Vidarbha in the first week of January.
Nine subdivisional police officers (SDPO) of Gadchiroli and four from Gondia have been identified as nodal personnel to implement the plan. The students will be provided live demonstration of making online payments from Mumbai and Thane. This is expected to reduce the hardship of demonitisation in remote places. Students getting social welfare department scholarships in bank accounts would be the target audience.
Shivaji Bodkhe, inspector general of police, State ANO chief, said students of standard VIII and XII would be the prime target group. “Senior level students too will be involved at places in Sironcha and Aheri taluka of south Gadchiroli, where there are colleges,” he said. The IG said the initiative would help students from these regions to use cashless money transfers just like their urban counterparts. “The SDPOs are now collecting data of students for the camps,” he said.
Bodkhe also said data of 16,430 students has been prepared by SDPO Deori-Amgaon division of Gondia. “We are trying to prioritize students with mobile phones, bank accounts and receiving government scholarships. Awareness can help them at least meet their daily need of stationery and books,” he said.
Bodkhe said information regarding facilities like RBI’s Universal Payment Interface (UPI), USSD codes, Digi cash and such other modalities of online payments would be provided at the camps. “We are planning Wi-Fi connectivity and other facilities, so that practical training can be adopted by our experts,” he said.
At Karwafa in Dhanora tehsil of Gadchiroli, SDPO Ganesh Ingle is set to organize ‘Yuva Mahotsav’ between January 1 and 12 next year, targeting youth on the theme of various progressive and development issues. The training of cashless and e-banking facilities would be one of the themes at the 12-day programme.
“Camps will be held in sensitive places like Bhamragarh and other parts of the districts. We will ensure students can actually transfer cash through mobile phones among each other,” he said.