Demonetisation: PACB employees stage demonstration in Madurai

MADURAI: More than a hundred employees of Primary Agricultural Cooperative Banks in Madurai and Theni districts under the aegis of Tamil Nadu Primary Cooperative Bank All Employees Association staged a demonstration in front of the Madurai District Central Cooperative Bank here on Monday. They stated that all banking activities in PACBs have come to a standstill due to demonetisation of Rs 500 and 1000 currencies.
According to the association, all the 4654 PACBs in the state have received oral instructions to suspend transactions after the RBI sent out a circular on demonetisation of Rs 500 and 1000 notes. Due to the order they are not able to carry out any services to the beneficiaries of PACBs.
They are not able to accept dues of various loans taken in cooperative banks by farmers or dispense cash from savings accounts of them. Interest and dividends could not be distributed to farmers. They are not able to return the jewels pledged in cooperative banks when farmers having some family functions try to redeem their jewels.
Unable to render any services or answer the queries of anxious farmers, they closed down all PACBs on Saturday and handed over the keys to cooperative registrars in concerned districts. All PACBs were closed on Monday.
“In addition to carrying out cash transactions, PACBs also involve in distributing fertilisers to farmers and run Public Distribution Shops for poor people. All the activities have come to a standstill due to the oral order from government”, said P Kamaraj Pandian, state Joint Secretary of the association.
The employees urged government either to revoke the oral order allowing them to transact with old denomination currencies temporarily or issue new currency notes to resume operations. “We have decided to demand the supply of cash in new denominations. Till the cash is distributed to PACBs, we appeal government to announce that all PACBs won’t function”, he added.