Chennai miserably fails cashless test during cyclone Vardah
- Few of the shops which were open, they refused to accept cashless payments.
- Many hotels and restaurants across the city of Chennai did not even accept the new ₹ 2,000 notes.
FollowPost currency ban and Jayalalithaa’s death, Chennai was hit by cyclone Vardah. Although there were hardly any causalities, but the capital of Tamil Nadu was reeling because it almost went cashless. The residents struggled in distress caused by the cashless ATMs, failure of mobile networks, unavailability of net banking and non-working PoS machines.
Few of the shops which were open, they refused to accept cashless payments. The internet was off the grid so car-swiping machines were not working. Thus, many of the residents even struggled to get their hands on some food. Many hotels and restaurants across the city of Chennai did not even accept the new ₹ 2,000 notes.
In a drive to make the nation resort to cashless transactions, isn’t the government at the Centre asking for way too much even during such hard times? Natural calamities will fall upon the human beings. At that point, the common people usually want all kinds of co-operation from the government.
The currency ban can be a good step to make a better India. But to reduce the woes of commoners after this step, the central government and RBI have failed to keep the banks and ATMs filled with cash. A question that is bound to pop up in such occasions – Is the country ready yet to go cashless?
