No respite on Day 6

Chennai: Temple officials or staff who abet in exchanging the banned currencies of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations will be in trouble. The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR & CE) department has strictly warned them against such a measure while directing the temple authorities to deposit the hundial collections only in the respective bank accounts of the temples.

Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement on demonetisation, the HR & CE directed the Executive Officers (EOs) of all the temples under its control not to barter the withdrawn notes for smaller denomination.

While asking the EOs to maintain a vigil, the department instructed the officials to open the hundials by December end, the deadline fixed for exchange \ deposit of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes with the banks.

“The offerings made by devotees could be in coins or currencies. All the hundials should be opened as per rules and the cash counted. The Executive Officers should deposit the collections from hundials only into the respective bank accounts of the temples,” the circular stated.

According to sources, normally the hundials are opened for counting the offerings whenever they overflow or once in a month. “In certain temples they are opened once in three months. But now all the temples managed by EOs should compulsorily be opened by Dec. 31,” an official said.

On Nov. 13, the management of the ancient Sri Jalagandeshwar temple within the Vellore Fort, were taken aback when they found a huge sum of '44,34,473 including '44,29,500 in demonetised '500 and '1,000 denominations, deposited in the temple collection box.  

On Monday, bookmakers visiting the Madras Race Club (MRC) at Guindy also stayed away from betting due to lack of valid currencies. Sources with the MRC said that he annual winter season started with the Tote betting, with no activities from bookies. Bookies have decided to meet on November 23, to decide on the next course of action, sources added.

Meanwhile with banks not operating the lockers for the past few days, pawnbrokers are finding it difficult to return the mortgaged jewels to their customers.

When DC visited pawnbrokers and financiers in Sowcarpet, Vepery, Chintadripet and Tambaram, most of them vented their anger against the Centre’s move and chose to steam within seeking anonymity.

“I am pleading with the borrowers to wait for one more week to return their mortgaged jewels, as the banks and private facilitators are now hesitant to open the locker chest due to the busy money exchange and cash withdrawals,” explained S. Nithin, a pawn broker in West Tambaram.  “The situation is such that the money flow and business had completely crippled and hire purchase association members have suffered huge loss by investing in vehicle stocks,” said Mukesh Dugar, member, Tamil Nadu Hire Purchase Association.

“Customers without bank accounts or those who cannot avail bank loans depend on us to purchase new vehicles. With the Reserve Bank and the income tax imposing stringent measures we are turning away  customers visiting our showrooms,” he said.

A regular financier in Central Chennai will easily sell around 50 to 60 two-wheelers in a month through the hire purchase agreement. Under this scenario, we would be glad if we could sell 10 vehicles, a month, he rued.

“Most of us feel like being left in lurch and are finding it difficult to get currencies of lesser denominations. Further, cheque bounces are now a common factor among my customers due to insufficient funds. I am extending the EMI dates of all my customers”, said Ramesh Jain, a pawnbroker in Choolai.

Banks prioritise customers, calls out government failure

On day six, most banks focused on account holders giving preference to them and made the token system compulsory for those who want to exchange currency.

 While ATMs in Delhi dispersed new notes, ATMs in Tamil Nadu were only dispensing till Tuesday night old Rs 100 notes and new Rs 2,000 notes.

Some of the private banks asked the security guards to ensure that the time before noon was for customers, leaving the post hours noon for exchange of notes.  Only account holders were allowed till lunchtime while non-account holders and other services were encouraged later in the day.

“For the past four days, we have not done justice to our customers, but we were serving the public as it was a case of emergency. We complained to our regional head about some persons frequenting the banks for exchange of old notes on a daily basis.

So it has been decided to entertain those seeking change only during the afternoon session,” said a branch manager of Indian Overseas Bank.

“The number of cash deposits has come down, but there is no respite from crowds seeking exchange of old notes. Just imagine about 100 people waiting at the entrance and trying to barge in, when the bank shutters are opened,” complained a cashier with ICICI bank in Egmore.

 “We are stressed out and there is no more energy among the banking staff. About 50,000 bank employees have struggled for the past four days due to the failure of government and all banking services have taken a toll due to demonetisation,” said C.H. Venkatachalam, General Secretary, All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA).

Putting up shamianas with furniture inside, controlling queues in the road, exchanging old currencies and asking for Aadhar photo copies are actually not part of banking services.

This is work that has to be taken up by the government.  Banking is a sector and not a government department and if this continues, youngsters will not prefer to work in banks, Venkatachalam added.