Centre pressures educational institutions to go cashless

The Centre is building pressure on all higher educational institutions and  bodies associated with the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry for adopting a complete cashless mode of transactions in “all financial matters”.

Issuing an official order, the HRD ministry has asked all of them to prepare “a clear road map” for transition to cashless mode of financial transactions within a time frame.

The ministry has also restricted all the universities and colleges, as well as the regulatory bodies under it, from “insisting” upon the draft and pay orders for any financial transaction “till further orders”.

The ministry had earlier asked all the educational institutions, including schools, post-demonetisation to migrate to the digital mode of transactions.

It also later launched a nationwide campaign for spreading digital financial literacy among people, by roping in  students of higher educational institutions.

Following a call from HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar last month, over one lakh students joined the nationwide campaign with a pledge to spread awareness about the benefits of digital financial transactions and also train at least 10 families in their close vicinity on using mobile phones for their day-to-day financial transactions.

“The response of the institutions to the ministry’s call for cashless transactions has so far been good, but much is still left to be done by many of them to ensure that there is a complete cashless transaction in all financial matters. Why should a daily wage worker get remuneration in cash when easy options are available for digital payment?” an official source in the ministry told DH, requesting anonymity.

The ministry has directed all the educational institutions, as well as regulatory bodies including the UGC and the All India Council for Technical Education, to use the RTGS  route or the NEFT in their financial transactions.