Mangaluru : MP Nalin Kumar Kateel on Wednesday directed lead bank manager to ensure that all 318 villages in the district shift to cashless transaction system by the end of March 2017.

Speaking at the Dakshina Kannada district Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee meeting, he said e-banking and cashless transaction should be implemented effectively. Educational institutions have come forward to create awareness on cashless transaction and e-banking in villages – an initiative has been taken in Munnur. The MP directed the lead bank to train around 200 volunteers to create awareness among the general public on cashless transaction and e-banking.

On post-demonetisation, lead bank manager Raghava Yajamanya said that only 50% of the ATMs are functional in the district. There is shortage of Rs 500 and Rs 100 currency notes. The ATMs are dispensing only Rs 2,000 currency notes. There are 830 ATMs in the district and 634 bank branches. The currency chest will be equally distributed among all the banks to prevent shortage of currency.

Balpa village in Sullia taluk, which is developed under Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, is moving towards cashless transaction. The Syndicate Bank organised an awareness programme on cashless transaction recently.

All families have bank accounts in the village. Point of Sale machines have been installed in shops. A group of 10 volunteers is creating awareness among shop-keepers on the use of PoS.

Zilla Panchayat Deputy Secretary Umesh said that housing schemes have been affected by demonetisation. Several banks have not followed RBI’s guidelines that allow beneficiaries withdrawal of Rs 24,000 a week, which has affected the construction of houses under various housing schemes.

Kateel directed the lead bank manager to write to all the branches to ensure that RBI’s guidelines are implemented effectively in connection to withdrawal of cash.

On the Stand Up India scheme, the manager said that 585 proposals have been received, of which 42 have been sanctioned a sum of Rs 6.85 crore. There is a need to accelerate the process of accepting the proposal. The scheme facilitates bank loans between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore to at least one SC/ST/woman per bank branch to set up a greenfield enterprise.