A shortage of new denomination notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 as being witnessed in various bank branches is purely a re-distribution issue concerning bank branches and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had issued enough new notes to the banks already, an RBI spokesperson told News18.
On Thursday morning, long lines could be seen outside bank branches as people queued up to exchange the now-invalidated currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. But at many cities across India, banks were scrambling for the new notes leading to longer lines.
The RBI maintained it is a temporary issue. “We have dispersed cash from our currency vaults to the currency chests of the banks. Now the banks will have to redistribute it to their branches,” RBI spokesperson Alpana Killawala told News18. She said that the extent of the problem could only be gauged after checking with their New Delhi.
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Earlier, reporters of News18 who fanned out across the country, had witnessed long lines and frustrated customers in front of bank branches. While unexpected formalities kept the queues frozen for a while, paucity of notes delayed the exchange process further.
Even in the national capital, the new notes were not available with many bank branches.
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“New notes are not available as yet, and the notes are likely to reach banks around sometime next week,” said Mansoor Alam, Regional Manager of Kotak Mahindra Bank, Noida Sector 18, adding that customers would be getting their cash in the denomination of Rupees 50 and 100 till the new notes arrive.
Customers had been informed by their banks that cash could be deposited or exchanged in any bank across the city, but people huddling outside Syndicate Bank near Noida had a different version.
“I have been standing here since 8 am as informed, but it is already 10:30 am and there is no one in the cash counter. We have been told that new currencies have not arrived as yet,” says Col. Cheema, a customer.
Many customers complained of not being informed about technicalities involved before arriving at the bank. “Now they are telling us that money has to be deposited or exchanged only at home branches. We were not even informed that we had to get self-attested photocopies of our identity proof. Where should we find a shop open now?” complained Mrs Simran Ahuja, a customer of State Bank of India.
While there were a few complaints from across the country that a few bank branches had demanded Aadhar cards for currency exchange, a detailed enquiry done by our reporters found this was baseless.
“We are getting a ‘request slip’ which clearly mentions that Aadhar card, pan card, driving license, passport, or voter ID card will serve the purpose of an official proof,” says Sanuj Das, a customer of the Punjab National Bank, Noida.
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