The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has extended the period of free distribution of Janmitra cards by one more month in a bid to reach out to more people. Nearly 50,000 citizens opted the cards in just a month’s time. The civic body had announced the distribution of Janmitra card free of cost for a month starting September 1, after the Central government announced promoting digital payment in smart cities in 100 days. According to officials, initially, there was a poor response from the citizens. The Janmitra cards are part of city’s Smart City project. Officials claim that till date around 1.25 lakh cards have been distributed, of which 50,000 cards were distributed in September alone. “The response is good from people and hence we have asked the bank (ICICI Bank, the nodal agency for Janmitra card), to distribute it free for one more month. More than 50,000 people have take the Janmitra card in last month,” said Vijay Nehra, municipal commissioner, AMC. There are two types of Janmitra cards – personalised (Rs 75) and non-personalised (Rs 50), which will be available for free. This is not for the first time that the AMC has given the card free of cost. Earlier, to increase the number of card holders, the civic body had given the cards to all elected members without any fee. In order to overcome the challenge of encouraging digital transaction in under 100-days challenge via Janmitra Cards, the AMC has announced that it will gift a Smartphone to top 100 users. There are over 350 outlets where such cards are available. To boost the digital transactions, AMC had earlier announced that there will be no cash payment accepted for BRTS service September 1, 2018 onwards, but later on it was dropped after the civic body faced public wrath.

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