Minicoy (Lakshadweep): The Lakshadweep islands will soon become a 100 per cent cashless society as part of the Centre's Digital India initiative, the Union Territory Administrator Farooq Khan said here. Here are important points:
  • Steps are underway to achieve this goal and they are hopeful of reaching it soon: Farooq Khan
  • "Because of communication problems, we have certain issues. But the government of India is attending to those issues," Khan told reporters here on the sidelines of the valedictory of two-day national Minicoy festival last evening.
  • "Very soon all the shops in the islands would have digital money transaction facilities. Other mechanisms like USST are also being ensured now," he said.
  • Our UT will soon become a 100 per cent cashless society, he added.
  • On the impact of demonetisation, he said the move had caused no difficulties to the islands and had not triggered any panic among the locals.
  • "Our officers were upto the task of taking the challenge head on. They were able to manage the situation in a manner that there were no long queues seen before ATMs... banks functioned absolutely normally.. and no point of any shortage of money was reported from any side," the administrator said.
  • Senior central government observers were also here to monitor the situation.
  • "We have ensured that people keep on getting what they are legally authorised to get from the banks," Khan said.
  • "By and large, we had an absolute smooth transition after demonetisation," he added.
About Lakshadweep: Lakshadweep, formerly known as the Laccadive, Minicoy, and Aminidivi Islands  is a group of islands in the Laccadive Sea, 200 to 440 kilometres off the south western coast of the country. The archipelago is a Union Territory and is governed by the Union Government of India. Lakshadweep is an archipelago of 12 atolls. Plus, it has three reefs and five submerged banks, with a total of about thirty-nine islands and islets.