People hail demonetization of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes

From a Correspondent

TANGLA, November 10: The government’s shocking announcement for demonetization of Rs. 500 and Rs 1,000 notes to tackle widespread corruption and tax evasion has evoked positive response from the people of the town.  

Although markets and other businesses in several  parts of the district witnessed low-key activity due to the demonetization, the common people praised it as a step towards freeing the country of black money. Rattled shopkeepers refused to accept the currency notes of demonetized denomitions and wanted only Rs 100 and below. “It remained a difficult day for people like us. No one accepted Rs 500 notes, not to talk of Rs 1,000 notes in the market. After all, how can one arrange so much of Rs 100 notes and below all of a sudden? I had to buy half the quantity of all the stuff,” said Arijit Roy, a resident of Tangla town.

While a section of people are facing trouble on the practical applicability of exchanging their old money with the new legal tenders and the related bank transactions, other people are rushing to petrol depots and medicine stores which are accepting the old notes, as directed by the government. Some restaurants and grocery stores were seen accepting the old notes but many of them hung signboards that read ‘Rs.1000 and Rs 500 will not be accepted’.  People are facing difficulties in purchasing household goods and utensils as many stores refuse to accept the demonetised notes and notes of lower face value are not much in circulation. Great rush was seen at the gold jewellery stores as people were eager to invest in gold jewellery.

A different picture was seen in villages nearby as most of the villagers are uware of the exchange facilities and many do not want to go to banks. Villagers were seen exchanging Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes for smaller denomition notes.

 There were chaotic scenes at banks in the town on Thursday  as people waited for hours to deposit and exchange their old notes. Police and paramilitary troops were seen posted near banks. The banks also disappointed many people as them could not provide exchange facilities due to uvailability of notes of Rs.100 and below.  People were of the opinion that it would have been a relief if government had pumped in available Rs.100 notes in banks and other fincial institutions.