JK News Today Special
Srinagar/ Jammu, November 12 ( JKNT)
Crowds in hundreds thronged banks and ATMs in Jammu and Kashmir joined the rest of the country on Saturday to draw and exchange money to fulfill their daily needs and clear all the big notes of Rs. 1000 and Rs. 500 rendered useless after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of demonetization of the currency of high denomination .
Panicked residents in Jammu, Srinagar, Sopore, Kupwara, Baramullah, Rajouri, Udhampur Kathua and several other places across the state had queued up outside the ATM and bank branches to draw and exchange the money. They braved the early morning chill to stand in the queue to fulfill their cashless purses. But the banks and ATMs ran out of cash by noon and most of the people had to return disappointed , cursing the demonetization .
“ We cannot spend our own money and we are helpless as banks are unable to deliver the cash in lower denomination. Our life has become cursed,” said Zahoor Mir, a resident of Bagat Barzulla , Srinagar ,who had been standing in the queue since morning only to be told that his bank had no money to exchange his high value notes. The ATM machine had no cash.
“Let there be a crackdown on black money , but don’t make our lives miserable. I am an employee and I have to survive on salary, Mohammad Afzal , a resident of Sopore told fellow queue makers.
All are baffled that why could not government think of some other way of taking on the black money holders. They think that the government has been ill-advised . “It has put the common man to extreme convenience,” revealed Mohammad Shafi of Natipora, who had drawn money from the bank few days ago to send his daughter for studies outside the Valley. “ Where do I go with this money. The whole of it is trash now,” he said in anger as he finds that the chances of his daughter getting admission outside diminished .
These kind of angry voices were heard in Jammu. “ Do you think, we are black money holders standing in line with all these currency notes in full display of the public. I have been visiting bank for the past three days and I have not been able to get even a single penny exchanged or drawn. My children are asking me questions , and I have no answers, “ said Vibodh Kumar who is a small time shopkeeper in Trikuta Nagar locality of Jammu.
Bankers too are facing the harassment . “ No one believes us when we say that the new currency has not arrived and the old notes of Rs. 100 denomination have been distributed,” said a bank employee on the condition of anonymity.
