Odisha govt to introduce cashless transactions at PDS outlets

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has decided to introduce cashless transactions in the public distribution system (PDS) by installing point of sale (PoS) machines at the PDS outlets.

The ration card holders could purchase groceries by swiping their debit cards at the shop.

Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare secretary P K Mohapatra has asked the district collectors to take steps to strengthen the required infrastructure in around 15,000 PDS stores across the state.

The state government is also going to introduce Aadhar-based bio-metric system at the PDS stores to check leakages in the system.

“We have already discussed with banks to provide facilities at the PDS outlets for cashless transactions. They have evinced interest to extend logistic support to promote digital payment in the PDS chain,” said an officer in the department.

In the initial phase, PoS machines would be installed in nearly 1,400 PDS stores (fair price shops) in the urban areas by January-end. Later, it would be extended to all 15,000 stores by next three to four months.