Sans new currency, post offices disappoint people

Aarti Kapur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 10

At 10.30 am, 80-year-old Savita turned up at the Sector 47 post office with the hope that she will be able to exchange her Rs 1,000 currency notes to buy medicines and grocery. Her son and daughter-in-law had gone away for a week and had given her four currency notes of Rs 1,000 each for her day-to-day needs.

After standing in a queue for 15 minutes, the post office staff informed her that she could only deposit the cash and they could not exchange the notes as no currency was available with them. 

The staff at the post office said they had opened the counters at 9 am as they were aware that the public was facing inconvenience, but they were helpless as there was a delay on the part of banks in meeting their demand for new currency.

Similar was the story of other post offices in the city till 2 pm as the requisite cash was not provided to them by the banks. During a visit to the post offices in Sectors 15, 17, 18, 19 and 47 it was found that except for the General Post Office in Sector 17, where currency notes of Rs 100 and Rs 50 were available, no post office was exchanging cash.

Extra counters were set up in all post offices today for the convenience of the public. At the General Post Office, Sector 17, six counters were set up of which one was for opening of new accounts. In other branches, one additional counter was set up to deposit cash for the convenience of residents. The timings of the General Post Office were extended to 5 pm today.

Punjab circle Chief Postmaster General PK Swain said the new currency was received a bit late today. However, as soon as the cash was received, the distribution started in all post offices in Punjab circle. He said yesterday, the post offices worked till late hours to collect Rs 100 and Rs 50 currency notes for exchanging old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. He said the post offices had ample currency and no customer had gone without money. 

To liaison with banks, two senior officials of Punjab circle were deployed, he said. Swain said he was monitoring the situation in all post offices in the city and had ordered separate queues for senior citizens and the differently abled.

GPO disbursed Rs 1 crore 

The Chief Postmaster General said on the first day, the General Post Office, Sector 17, received Rs 2 crore of which Rs 1 crore was disbursed among the public. 

PeopleSpeak

“More counters should be set up in post offices for senior citizens to deposit and withdraw currency. — RK Dutta, retired employee

I have run out of cash for buying items of daily use and for commuting purposes. — Aastha, student, SD College, Sector 32

I have no idea how I will manage till the ATMs start functioning. — Anshika, student, SD College, Sector 32

I am not entertaining clients as post offices are only depositing money and for withdrawal, I will have to visit banks. — Ravnish, Part-time technician