THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It was fifteen minutes past 12 noon on Thursday and the Indian Overseas Bank branch at Vattiyoorkavu in the capital was bustling with customers, exactly a month after the demonetisation process began.
Located in a semi-urban area, majority of the customers at the branch were women from Kudumbasree self-help groups in the locality. They had come to the bank for their daily transactions after hurriedly completing their household chores.
A ‘network malfunction’ aggravated the situation and the queues at the counter kept on increasing. Women were seen leaving the bank in a huff.
Short of change and breath
Amid the din, 63-year old K S Chandrakumar patiently waited for his turn. The retired Central Government employee had come to withdraw Rs 6,000 to meet an urgent expense. “The bank officials told me that there is a system snag and that cash transactions will be delayed. Anyway, I will wait as I am in urgent need of money,” the senior citizen said with a token held firmly in his hand.
Meanwhile, the crowd kept on growing.During a casual talk, Chandrakumar went on to say how the demonetisation exercise has only caused ‘hardship to the common man.’ “Nearly a month ago, I came to the bank to exchange old currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.
There was a serpentine queue which extended to the road outside. It was after waiting for almost two hours under the blazing sun that I could get the money deposited,” he said.
The senior citizen also remarked how it was tough to get short change from the ATMS as most of them were dispensing Rs 2,000 notes. He was equally skeptical about whether the demonetisation exercise would help curb black money. “Already the big corporate houses would have got wind of the impending policy and turned their black money into white,” he said.