Hyderabad Faces Brunt Of 500, 1000 Note Ban

A week after the announcement of the demonetization of the 500 and 1,000 currency bills by the Centre, people saw no respite as banks and post offices continue to be crowded with people scrambling in to exchange their old currency bills for new ones.

As per public opinion, the Prime Minister's bid to weed out corruption and counterfeit currency seems to have its own side effects.

Ironically though the government had announced that the old notes could be exchanged with new ones at post offices and banks, the new notes had not yet reached the post offices putting the people to long waiting and hardships. People have waited for as long as 6 hours to withdraw Rs. 4,000 (which is the maximum withdrawal limit as per the RBI).

In a hurry to exchange bills for carrying out their day-to-day expenditures, people buzzed around banks and post offices much before their opening hours. Serpentine queues comprising of young and old men and women formed outside the venues only to create havoc and confusion. Everybody from daily-wage labourers to patients were kept waiting in the long queues before banks. Several patients complained that private hospitals would not
accept 500 and 1,000 bills despite government orders.

The denominations of 500 and 2,000 also posed a problem - small vendors and shopkeepers would not take any denomination above 100 citing lack of hard cash. The shutting down of ATMs for two days coupled with the unprecedented rush only compounded the problem as many who depended on credit and debit cards for transactions were forced to head to banks. ATMs are expected to begin functioning from Friday and the banks have begun measures to restock banks with new currency.