Thousands thronged banks on Thursday which reopened for the first time after Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes were abolished from Tuesday night.
Apprehending chaos, the Odisha police had deployed security personnel at banks across the State on Thursday.
While some customers were eager to get Rs. 100 currency notes for managing daily transactions, other wanted to relish the first possession of Rs. 2000 denomination introduced recently.
“I have not been able to purchase anything as I have run out of Rs. 100 bank notes since Wednesday morning. It was compulsion for me to stand in queues for Rs. 100 currency notes. I will wait for a fortnight for the situation in banks to ease and then I will deposit Rs 500, Rs 1000 currency notes lying with me,” said Saroj Nanda, a resident of Kharavelanagar.
Mostly students
Customers, who lined up before banks, comprise mainly college students. Since Bhubaneswar is an educational hub of the State, thousands of students had been residing in hostels and rented accommodations in the city.
“We mostly keep less than Rs. 2,000 with us for our small needs. After the declaration, we have no cash even for a cup of tea. We have no option, but to skip our classes and collect the much-needed cash for our requirement,” said Sagar Pradhan, who pursues engineering programme in a city college.
As soon as banks reopened in the morning, people with cash rushed from urban areas to rural branches where gathering outside banks was less.
In urban areas, luxury items, furniture, television sets, expensive cell phones, computers and laptops vanished from the showrooms as people had no times to decide on items of their choice. They almost threw cash in showrooms for taking these products away.
Difficult times
Meanwhile, parents preparing for marriage and other social ceremonies faced difficult times to make arrangement. “My social prestige is at stake. I was sitting on sizeable cash needed to organise the marriage. But one announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi snatched away that flexibility of spending in marriage celebration,” said Parsuram Sahoo, a Kendrapada-based physician, whose two doctor sons would be getting married next month.
Farmers in coastal Odisha, where they are getting ready for groundnut cultivation, fear that the schedule could be delayed by a week. They are facing difficulties in purchasing seeds for the crop.
