Banks across the country opened up to long, serpentine queues today as millions of people rushed to their local branches to get rid of banned high denomination currency for new notes or deposit them in their accounts even as police maintained tight security.
Anxious customers thronged the branches much before the opening time–some at the crack of dawn–and had to wait for several hours to complete their transactions with senior citizens also not being spared of hardships.
Amid frayed tempers, there were complaints galore that the stocks of new hard-to-fake Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes were exhausted within hours though the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were being accepted by banks. Queues were seen at the banks several hours after they opened for public dealings.
In some interior areas, some banks and post offices reported that they were yet to receive new notes.
Security was beefed up in banks and ATMs even as people fumed over the idea of waiting in long queues on a working day.
In the national capital, as many as 3,400 personnel of paramilitary and Delhi Police along with quick reaction teams were deployed for maintaining security in banks in view of huge rush of people.
“Despite having money with us, we are struggling for basic necessities as grocery stores, DTC buses and other local shops are not accepting these notes. Now I have to skip going to office today to exchange notes as there is such a long queue that my turn will not come before another 3-4 hours,” said Kumkum Bhargav, a primary school teacher in Delhi.
Kunal Bhardwaj, a TCS employee said, “Those who have blackmoney will anyway find methods to get away. It is common man who will suffer. Now we have no option other than waiting in queues as there is no money for basic things as well”.
Some people said that the banks should have given tokens.
“In that case we would not have to stand in queue for long, we could have done other works. Then there are old people also in the queue,” a customer said in Kolkata.
