RBI asks people to go to other regional offices to get old notes exchanged

Hyderabad: People who want to exchange their old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes with new ones at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) here in the last minute were aghast at the RBI personnel turning them away stating that the RBI office here was not authorized to exchange the demonetised currency.

The RBI regional office has been asking the people to go to any of the RBI regional offices at Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Nagpur. Out of 29 regional offices, the Center has identified only these five offices for the purpose of exchanging the old currency with the new ones.

There are many people in Telugu states who could not exchange their old currency notes in banks during November and December. For Reasons that include the death of a family member or hospitalization they could not approach the local banks.

They are of the notion that they could exchange the old currency in the RBI office here till March 31 as promised by the Center. Husband of a Musheerabad resident Sankaramma passed away recently. She discovered Rs 7500 saved by her husband in an almirah among the clothes. She said with tears welling up in her eyes that the RBI personnel were advising her to go to other states to get the old currency encashed.

In another incident, a person called Basheer was hospitalized for three months because of dialysis. He went to the RBI office here recently only to be advised to go to Mumbai to get his Rs 2000 encahsed. The RBI staff refused to entertain any request in this regard even if he pleaded with them hard citing his illness as the reason.

There were hundreds of people like him. They saved small amounts, not greater than Rs 5000, in tins, old boxes and almirahs thinking that the money would be useful during emergencies.

Lack of exchange facility at the RBI office here is drawing flak. Earlier also at the height of demonetisation the RBI office here was blamed for delay in sending new currency to banks and ATMs in Telugu states.

There are many poor people from Telugu states who were employed in Gulf countries. To exchange the whatever meager demonetised notes that are available with them, they need to go to Mumbai or other four regional RBI office.

They feel that going to Mumbai or Delhi would be uneconomical for them as they have to incur transport and other incident expenses. They feel that their hard earned money would become useless for them forever.

Therefore, they appeal to authorities to give them one chance to get their old notes exchanged for new currency keeping in mind the problems of the common man.

By Satheesh Kumar Vempati