CHENNAI: It’s exactly been a week since banks across the country re-opened for public after the demonetisation announcement and financial normalcy is yet to be restored in people’s lives. And as if adding fuel to the fire, the Union Government on Thursday reduced the limit for swapping invalid notes to Rs 2,000 from the current Rs 4,500 adding further to the woes of the common man waiting endlessly in front of bank branches.
Long queues are still the order of the day at banks and the lines are much longer and the wait is much more torturous at the few ATMs that have become operational. And the move to use indelible ink to identify people who have already exchanged their invalid currencies has come as a shock for people who term it as an “insane” move. On Thursday, a few banks in this metropolis stopped exchange of invalid notes due to “non-availability” of the indelible ink, while some other branches downed their shutters as required amount of valid notes were not available.
Bank employees and their associations are up in arms against the Government’s latest move. “Bank employees are extremely fatigued and this cannot go on longer.” “With the reduction in exchange capacity to Rs 2,000, there will be longer queues, as more number of people from a family will come forward to collect money,” C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary, All India Bank Employees Association told Deccan Chronicle.
“The government surprised the banks by making the announcement at such a short notice, and now all bank employees are overworked. Those who are given Rs 2,000 notes are not able to put in circulation and RBI is facing a shortage of Rs 100 notes. ATMs should be well-equipped so that the pressure on banks is less,” he said. Disagreeing with the suggestion that the Union Government messed up the issue, S Narayan, former Economic Advisor to the then Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee, said RBI should have ensured that there was no dearth of valid notes.
“There should be more steps like seizing benami property and stashed gold, which I feel would be the next move. As far as execution is concerned, RBI should have seen the dearth of notes,” he said. People are not in a mood to accept any of the argument put forth by the government.
