In a major shocker to PM Modi’s Digital India dream, Telangana’s Ibrahimpur village, which made national headlines after becoming the first fully cashless village in December 2016, has gone back to cash.

In less than a year, the village has gone back to cash transactions.

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The villagers blame high charges levied on bank transactions and heavy rentals on Point-of-Sale (POS) swipe machines.

The village switched to cards and electronic transactions for simple things as auto rides or buying a snack from a store. People had to pay a monthly rental of Rs 1,400 forcing them to go back to cash transactions within a year.

They say that switching to cashless transactions was a mistake.

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In November 2016, when everyone was grappling with demonetisation, Dhasai village in Thane declared itself cashless. Hailed as a successful example of demonetisation, cash transactions have returned to the village, dampening the efforts of Digital India promoting cashless transactions.