Haryana's first 'cashless' village still runs on cash

In December last year, Jhattipur hit the headlines as the first `cashless' village of Haryana. Village sarpanch Ashok Kumar had told the media then that all shops had been linked to e-wallets and point of sale (PoS) machines to enable card transactions would arrive soon. But two months on, a visit to this village reveals that switching to digital payments is a far-fetched dream, reports Himanshi Dhawan.


Jhattipur, around 90km from Delhi, has no card-swiping machines yet, and with Wi-Fi available in the village for just an hour daily, use of ewallets is difficult.


Not surprising that residents have gone back to their `nakad' ways even at the few retailers like the barber, Atal Sewa Kendra and a grocery store that have payment apps and can accept virtual money. Pharmacist Yashpal Dhanda, who doesn't own a smartphone and relied like many in the village on credit during the demonetization cash crunch, says, "When people have money , they pay."

In other news, Aditya Puri, the Managing Director of HDFC Bank, recently said he sees no future in digital wallets. Speaking to ET Now, Puri was skeptical about this new trend in digital payments, which gained huge traction after demonetization.

After demonetization, people have grabbed whatever is easily available to pay for coffee, bills, movie tickets, cab rides and just about anything, he said. However, as alternatives to cash payments evolve, users comfortable with mobile wallets today could shift to an easier digital platform, he added.

Puri also mentioned Paytm, which he said could not be another Alibaba because its model could not be replicated. He said the current loss of Paytm was at Rs 1,600 crore.

Experts say that in the long term, systems like UPI stand a better chance as they enable direct transfer from your bank accounts.