Demonetisation issue: Huge rush witnessed at banks which reopened after a day across country

Huge rush and long serpentine queues were witnessed on Thursday at banks, which opened on Thursday after a day's break, as people jostled to get lower denomination currency and new banknotes to pay for their daily basic needs.

In a bid to flush out black money from economy, the government had announced withdrawal of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes from circulation on Tuesday night. Following that, ATMs were also closed down for couple of days. As a result, citizens on Thursday queued at banks to get the limited quota of cash.

Only a few ATMs were working and most of them will be back in operation only on Friday after the tedious job of removing the non-defunct banknotes and stocking them with lower denomination bills and new hard-to-fake Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes is completed.

People complained of having to wait for a long time before they could replace old higher denomination notes or withdraw from their bank accounts using pay-in slips or cheques.

Besides banks, select post offices were also replacing old high denomination (OHD) currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 with new Rs 2,000 banknotes.

People seemed excited after getting new Rs 2,000 notes from banks and clicked pictures holding the new banknotes in their hands.

Some, however, complained of the restrictions placed on exchanging OHD and withdrawals from the banks. Many felt the government should have done all preparations, including stocking ATMs, before announcing the decision.

Only a maximum of Rs 4,000 per person in cash irrespective of the size of tender was being given per person after submission of valid identity proof. Anything over and above this value was credited to bank account.

Banks set up additional counters to change cash as also allow withdrawal from bank accounts through cheque or withdrawal slips with a ceiling of Rs 10,000 in a day within an overall limit of Rs 20,000 in a week (including withdrawals from ATMs) for the first fortnight i.e. up to November 24.

Once the ATMs are fully functional, withdraw up to a maximum of Rs 2,000 per card per day up to November 18, 2016 will be allowed. The limit will be raised to Rs 4,000 per day per card from November 19, 2016 onwards, bankers said.

Banks have been ordered to remain open on the weekend as well as function late till 9 PM for three days beginning Thursday to deal with the huge rush.