Market yards to adopt cashless transactions 

Hyderabad: Minister for Marketing T Harish Rao on Thursday called upon officials of the department to take steps for adopting the concept of ‘cashless’ transactions at market yards throughout the State.

At a review meeting, the Minister expressed his view that cashless transactions would put a check on illegitimate dealings in market yards. The operations of the Agricultural Marketing Department, with its annual turnover of Rs 35,000 crore, would become more transparent, he reasoned.

The Minister hoped that training officials and farmers would help ease the adoption process. “The practice of cashless transactions being implemented by the Warangal market committee should be adopted in all yards,” he remarked.

Besides establishment of micro ATMs, hamalis and workers at market yards should be provided with debit cards. Farmers having bank accounts should be provided payments through Real-time gross settlement systems (RTGS).

He wanted officials to ensure that all the Rythu Bazaars begin their ‘cashless’ transactions by December 10. At a separate meeting, the Minister instructed officials of the Warehousing Department to bring all warehouses related to Marketing,

Civil Supplies, Agriculture, Agro, Seeds and Markfed under a single umbrella by integrating their combined capacities for increased efficiency. A seven-member committee was constituted for implementing the proposal.