Bengaluru: The decision of banks to allow only senior citizens over the age of 60 to exchange old denomination notes on Saturday took many by surprise as the announcement was made late Friday evening and most were unaware of it.
As a result people of all age groups were standing before banks to exchange their notes as usual Saturday morning and the situation soon led to frayed tempers with customers arguing heatedly with bank officials refusing to entertain them.
Adding to their frustration, customers were asked to produce their identity cards to confirm if they were senior citizens or not. “Bank officials wanted all the customers to produce their ID cards to confirm they were senior citizens. Even those who were 65 or 70 were denied exchange if they did not have them,” claimed Mr. Rama Shastri, a resident of Vijayanagar.
Acknowledging the chaos, a bank officer in Malleswaram, however, said that most banks exchanged notes for their own customers even if they were not senior citizens.
Meanwhile, most city ATMs that were open continued to see long queues on Saturday. Although the RBI had assured all ATMs would be functional during the day, only those on the main roads were working.
Private banks had more ATMs open than the nationalised banks, according to customers. “Private banks opened most of their ATMs for hours. But nationalised banks, which have more customers in the city, had only a few working,” said Mr. Gopal Hunasur, a marketing executive.
