PARTS of India descended into chaos on Saturday as millions of anxious people tried to change old currency notes that the government had declared worthless days earlier in a demonitisation exercise.
According to the Associated Press, India’s capital New Delhi was among the worst struck by the government’s announcement on Tuesday to declare all 500- and 1,000-rupee notes of no value in a bid to tackle corruption and tax evasion.
The news agency’s report said lines have grown longer over since the government announced the move several days ago with scuffles breaking out after ATMs ran out of bills. Two banks in the city’s old quarter was the scene of minor stampedes of people surging forward after waiting in line for hours to change the notes.
The government had deployed paramilitary troops at the most congested banks while anger grew as some banks reported running out of new currency notes.
“I am so angry at the lack of planning on the part of the government before taking such an enormous step,” said Raju Sundaram, an office executive, waiting outside a bank in the south Delhi neighborhood of Saket, as quoted by the AP.
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Waiting in a slow-moving line outside his bank for four hours, Sundaram said he had been attempting to change his notes for more than three days.
“On Thursday and Friday, they ran out of cash before my turn,” he said.
Most major banks in New Delhi saw long lines of customers who waited to withdraw new currency bills.
However, the rush to change the notes was compounded with problems as more than 200,000 ATMs across the country were not reconfigured to dispense the new 2,000-rupee notes that were recently circulated, Finance Minister Arun Jaitely said.
The minister said it would take two to three weeks for the banks to rectify the issue.
“We knew at the outset that the replacement of this much currency cannot happen overnight. It is a massive operation, and it has only begun,” Jaitely told reporters Saturday.
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He said the changes in the cash dispensers could not have been done earlier because the government wanted to maintain secrecy about the demonetization.
Tempers flared as many people in the country had reportedly lost their cool over long hours spent queing in long lines. Most of them lashed out at the government and bank employees.
“If it’s bad outside the bank, it’s complete chaos inside,” said Suniti Kumar, a housewife.
Police in the capital said they received more than 3,000 emergency calls on fights and scuffles in the city on Friday as banks grew crowded with frustrated customers.
In Kollam, a southern city, an angry crowd smashed glass panes and vandalised a bank after the manager declared to waiting customers that the bank had run out of new notes.
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