Keeping in view the demonetization derive at national level Punjab deputy chief minister Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal today directed all the bankers to mitigate the problems of populace and launch awareness campaign in the villages to educate the people for using e-payments through various modes including e-wallets, mobile banking and PoS terminals for cashless transactions.In a review meeting with senior officers and deputy commissioners regarding execution of various development works and welfare schemes here today Mr Badal categorically asked the senior officials of SBI bank to appoint banking correspondents at village level with PoS terminals and make available micro ATMs to facilitate the people in banking transactions and e-payments. He also asked the additional chief secretary finance DP Reddy to draft a plan regarding provisioning of debit cards and credit cards to all the account holders besides ensuring availability of PoS terminals at all shops and micro ATMs in each village by the banks.In order to facilitate easy e-transactions and encourage digital payments at the grass root level Deputy CM also asked all the deputy commissioners to have meetings with lead banks for adoption of villages and towns to make them fully digital transacting habitats in a phased manner.
While reviewing the rural and urban missions launched in the state the Deputy Chief Minister said these are vital link in the chain of providing basic civic amenities to the people and must be completed in the time span of next 2 weeks. He also instructed that the health cards under the Bhagat Puran Singh Sehat Bima Yojna (BPSSBY) must in all respects be distributed within week“The main aim of the SAD-BJP Government is to ensure not only the framing of development centric policies encompassing all sections of people but their proper implementation too at the grassroots level so as to enable every strata of society to be benefitted from them,” said the Deputy Chief Minister.Mr. Badal also directed the DCs to submit compliance report within a week about the free medicine and lab testing centers commenced recently by the state government. Touching the all important aspect of skill development centers, the Deputy CM said out of 109 skill centers constructed throughout Punjab, 70 have been made functional while the rest would be operational by 15th December.On the occasion, additional chief secretary NS Kalsi, principal secretary to Deputy CM PS Aujla, special principal secretaries Rahul Tewari and Manvesh Singh Sidhu and other senior officers of all the departments were also present.