CHENNAI/TIRUCHY/COIMBATORE: Just as the Central government is reeling out measures every day to set right the executional issues in the demonetisation exercise announced a fortnight ago, the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department of the Tamil Nadu government has come forward to play its role in helping the people by making available lower denomination rupee notes, offered by devotees in the temple hundis.
Various banks have recently represented to the HR and CE Department that the temple hundis could be opened frequently so that the scarcity of lower denomination notes would be eased to some extent if the offerings in the hundis are deposited with them. Following this, the department has issued a circular to all temples to do so.
However, official sources clarified that only those temples which receive sizeable cash offerings per day alone have been asked to open their hundis once in three days and others have been instructed to do so frequently depending upon the situation. “As of now, this special arrangement will continue till the end of December. After that, depending upon the need, we will take a decision,”, sources added.
During the past three days, hundis of many temples had been opened. The total collections in the hundis are as follows : November 21: Rs 4.15 crore; November 22 (2.75 crore) and November 23: (Rs 96 lakh).
On Thursday, the hundis in Sri Kapaleeswarar temple in Mylapore were opened after a month. Sources said the total collection stood at around Rs 32 lakh and of this, Rs 20 lakh was in the denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. There were a few small wads of Rs 500 notes and Rs 1,000 notes. Some devotees had offered even brand-new Rs 2,000 notes besides a few foreign currencies. In October, hundi collection was Rs 24 lakh.