Latur girl wins Rs 1 crore mega draw after using RuPay

Mumbai: When Sharddha Mengshette (20), an engineering student from Pune (originally from Latur) bought a cellphone using the government’s RuPay card, little did she know that she would win a fortune. Ms Mengshette bagged the Rs 1 crore Mega Draw for Lucky Grahak Yojana held by the Central government. She had made a transaction of Rs 1,590 through her RuPay card to pay an EMI for her new mobile phone. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday felicitated winners of the luck draw of two national incentive schemes for digital transactions — Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana in Nagpur.

It was a dream come true for Ms Mengshette whose father is a small shop owner in Latur. She said, “I was informed two days ago that I have won a Rs 1 crore cash prize and would be felicitated for the same by Prime Minister during his visit to Nagpur on Friday. I don’t know where to spend the money that I will receive as cash prize. Never thought of getting such a huge sum. I will not spend the money for some time as I want to finish my studies first.”

The Central government has been appealing the public to have maximum digital transactions post demonetisation. Another winner, Hardik Kumar won Rs 50 lakh as second prize under the same lucky draw for making digital transaction of Rs 1,100 followed by Bharat Singh from Uttarakhand, who won Rs 25 lakh for making digital transaction of Rs 100.

The 100 days of DigiDhan Melas, of the Central government NITI Aayog in 100 cities across India, have had a huge impact in enabling increased usage of digital payment methods.