Citizens face big problem of small notes

Hyderabad: After the "big notes" it is now the ‘small notes’ that are causing hardships to the people! After the demonetisation of 500 and 1,000 currency notes by the BJP-led NDA government, the people are facing hardships in exchanging the old notes with the new ones. Since November 8 when the scrapping of the high-value currency notes happened, the people, who were caught off guard, made a beeline to the banks to exchange the old notes. But the plan to ensure smooth process seems to have backfired on the Union government.

People, who have thronged the banks and ATMs, are still forced to spend hours together in serpentine queues only to get disappointed. The cash crunch in the banks and ATMs forced the people to spend long hours at the banks to get the required cash for their day-to-day needs. Since Monday has been declared a holiday for all the banks in the State in view of Guru Nanak Jayanti, scores of people, especially the poor and working class, were forced go hungry.

As a matter of fact, many rushed to the ATMs of various banks expecting that the recalibrated ones would function but were completely disappointed on finding their shutters down. Though the banks worked in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh State, there was no respite for the people in Telangana State.

Though the banks are trying to help the common people exchange the invalid notes with the new ones, the shortage of small notes Rs 50, Rs 20 and Rs 10 has caused distress to people. Groceries have been refusing to accept Rs 2,000 high denomination notes because of shortage of small-value currency notes. The medical shops are telling the customers to buy medicines worth the value of denomination, claiming that there is shortage of even Rs 100 notes.