Long Queues At Banks To Get New Denominations

Bhubaneswar: With the opening of banks on Thursday, people in large number were seen standing in long queues at banks across Odisha to exchange or deposit old denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1000.

The union government has banned the old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes since Tuesday midnight and asked the people to exchange or deposit their old money in the banks across the country.

'Cash-starved' people queued up at a bank in Bhubaneswar to exchange money pic.twitter.com/sNv4vBzEjE

— Sujit Bisoyi (@bisoyisujit87) November 10, 2016

Police have beefed up security at all the branches of the banks for crowd management and maintaining of law and order.

A meeting was held on Wednesday under the chairmanship of chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi on Wednesday to take stock of the situation. Padhi had directed to deploy adequate security personnel at the banks for the security of people, who are coming with huge cash to deposit in the banks.

RBI has instructed all the banks to remain open for transactions even on Saturday and Sunday besides extending their working hours in a bid to make the exchange and deposit hassle-free for the general public.

Notably, new Rs 500 and Rs 2000 Indian currency notes will be available in banks from today onwards. Customers can exchange the demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes in banks and post offices across the country.

As per norms, the old notes can be exchanged up to a maximum of Rs 4,000 per person till November 24. Proof of identity and an exchange slip duly filled-in will be required for availing the facility.

All the ATMs across the country will become operational from November 11 and customers can withdraw up to Rs 2,000 per card per day subjected to an aggregate limit of Rs 20,000 per week.

The ATM withdrawal limit will be hiked to Rs 4,000 per card per day after a few days. Similarly, customers can withdraw a maximum of Rs 10,000 per day from their accounts through bank counters limited to Rs 20,000 per week. The limit will be raised in the coming days.

There is no ceiling on deposit of the old Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes in the customer’s account until December 30. However, one has to show the source of income if the amount to be deposited exceeds Rs 2.5 lakh.