VISAKHAPATNAM: Even as the demonetisation announcement led most of the citizens to stand in long queues at the banks to exchange and deposit the old currency, some people chose post offices to avoid the rush and get their accounts opened.
During the exchange period till November 24, the Visakhapatnam post offices exchanged notes of over `20 crore and accepted `30-crore deposits and opened over 2,000 new accounts in addition to the existing eight lakh in Visakhapatnam division.
During the period, the city alone exchanged notes worth `20 crore in the 66 post offices, including two head post offices.
“The City has two head post offices, 64 sub-post offices and 92 branch offices and all these fall between Aganampudi to Tagarapuvalasa. The exchange was limited only to 66 post offices where any person was allowed to exchange notes worth `4,000 and then it was decreased to `2,000,” said KVLN Murty, the senior superintendent of post offices, the Visakhapatnam division.
“The deposits are now being done at 158 post offices and anybody who has savings accounts at post offices can deposit till December 30. To avoid rush we have implemented the token system to make it easy for people and we extended the bank timings till 8 pm at the head post offices,” he added.