Grey-haired and leaning on walking sticks, they turned up at banks across the district on Saturday, willing to surmount the difficulty like their younger counterparts.
With only senior citizens permitted to exchange currency notes on Saturday, they came looking for smaller denomination notes to spend at local grocery shops and conduct other transactions.
“The special service arranged for senior citizens was a good initiative, but there wasn’t sufficient stock of smaller denomination currency notes at the bank,” said noted environmental activist and Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad leader A. Achuthan, who came to the bank clutching his walking stick. He said he was struggling to manage daily transactions in the absence of smaller denomination notes.
Though there was slight respite for the elderly at most locations on Saturday, the rush to occupy chairs was visible inside banks. There were octogenarians who came along with their family members to complete banking formalities and exchange currency notes.
“It has almost been a decade since my mother visited a bank for cash transactions. She is 82 now and was quite anxious of the new developments,” said E. Gireesh Kumar, who came along with his mother Padmavathi to exchange demonetised currency notes at a city branch of State Bank of India. She had to renew her life certificate before attempting to withdraw money from her account.
Ms. Padmavathi said they had come all the way from Payambra, a village 18 km away from Kozhikode, to withdraw money as local branches were short of cash. They had hired an autorickshaw to reach the urban branch and complete transactions by afternoon.
For Peethambaran, a resident of East Hill, it was the third visit to a bank with a cheque to withdraw smaller denomination currency notes. “Twice they gave me the newly released Rs.2,000, which is of no use to the commoner who depends on local shops for purchase. I learn that here too I will not be able to secure smaller denominations,” said Mr. Peethambaran, a retired employee of Indian Railways.
