Vrindavan: The temples and 'mutts' of the twin city of Vrindavan and Mathura are ushering in an era of plastic currencies post demonetisation. Temples and mutts have started installing credit card swipe machines in their offices and donation counters so to enable devotees donate online.
According to sources here today, the historic Dhwarkadhish temple in Mathura have already contacted their bank and made an application for card swipe machines. They admitted that the donations at the temple had declined from an average Rs 5 lakhs a month to Rs 3.5 lakhs since demonetisation.
Even the Shree Krishna Janmbhoomi temple in Mathura has also applied for a swipe machine. Temple's trust officials said they will primarily use it for payments at their guest house, where room's rent vary from Rs 70 to Rs 400. They said due to cash crunch many people were finding it difficult to make cash payments and hence they had decided to install the machines.
However, officials at the famous Banke Bihari temple said, 'So far, we haven't started installing the machines but they will consider doing so. A proposal to put up the machines would take at the temple executive committee meeting soon.' The official admitted that as compared to earlier, their had been a slide in donations since demonetisation.(UNI)