PATNA: The ban on currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000, though supported by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, made the ordinary people in the state face several difficulties on Wednesday as a number of hospitals refused to accept these currency notes and fuel stations refused to sell fuel for prices less than Rs 500 or Rs 1,000.
“I welcome and support this decision,” said Kumar, who is also the national president of JD(U), about the ban on the currency notes announced by prime minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday evening.
“People may face some inconvenience in the beginning, but considering everything about it, this decision would produce positive results,” he added.
Kumar’s praise for the demonetization of the two high-value currency notes sprang a surprise as the Bihar CM is known as one of Modi's most outspoken critics.
Deputy chief minister Tejaswi Yadav, however, was not as forthcoming as Kumar in support of the demonetization move. "While this seems useful, the government should put in place elaborate and foolproof mechanism in order to ensure the people do not face hindrances in their routine transactions," said Yadav.
The demonetization drive, while it drew massive public support across Bihar, thousands of people in the state's 38 districts complained of facing trouble as the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes they had failed to purchase essential goods and services for them.
"Most hospitals in Patna, both private and government, refuse to accept these notes from the people. Medicine shops are simply refusing to sell anything to people carrying notes of the two denominations. It's weird because the government's appeal has been misunderstood by a large section of the trading community," said Manoj Kumar, a BA student in Patna.
An emotionally distressing scene was witnessed in Madhepura district when a young man was turned away by many clothes shops when he approached them with a Rs 500 note to buy a pall for his dead mother before her funeral. The man finally got the new cloth when a generous shopkeeper gifted it to him.
Petrol and fuel refilling stations in Patna and almost all district headquarters towns were reportedly asking people to either buy fuel for "round figures" of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 or return without buying any fuel.