Odisha Govt to launch awareness campaign on digital payment

Odisha government will soon launch a state-wide awareness campaign on digital payment at the grassroots level. The government plans to engage students having smartphone as volunteers under the drive by paying them commission.

The campaign will start from Bhubaneswar before being extended to other urban areas and villages. The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by finance secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey on December 7.

In sync with the Narendra Modi government’s digital push, a multi-pronged strategy will be formulated for digital payment awareness. Apart from common service centres, small savings agents and bank mitras, the government will engage students as volunteers or trainers.

The volunteers will register people, who are not using digital payments, and train them. They will get their commission (which is yet to be decided) after successful first digital transaction by persons trained by them. It will be tracked thorough a management information system mechanism.

The government will prepare publicity materials in Odia giving step-by-step instruction of various digital payment methods, including safety precautions. After a pilot project in Bhubaneswar, the drive will be extended to all cities, towns and block headquarters in the state in the first phase. In the second phase, it will be extended to all villages.

The government plans to install point of sale (POS) machines in all government cash counters, including fair price shops where subsidized rice and wheat are sold. Of the around 9,000 POS machines required for these shops, 1013 will be installed by SBI by January-end.

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