Families with weddings hit

AHMEDABAD: Shahpur police had a difficult time on Monday afternoon handling irate citizens outside Bank of Baroda in the area as those having weddings and other religious and social events were given Rs24,000 as the weekly limit of cash by the bank when the customers were hoping to get Rs2.5 lakh.
“It would surely affect our preparations,” said Avinash Jani, a resident of Shahpur Chakla who has his son’s janeu ceremony on December 4, “We have to pay to caterers, mandap service, etc.for the occasion and I was hoping to get at least Rs1 lakh today. When I told the bank officials about Rs2.5 lakh news, they said that they have not received any such notification.”
Jani was not alone in getting stranded just before social events. Ramesh Mistry, whose family has a wedding planned on December 3 visited his bank several times last week. He said that he had no other option but to seek help of his relatives to meet finances.
Bankers, too, are aware of the hardships faced by such families but they are unable to disburse the cash in absence of guidelines. Post demonetization, operating systems have been modified in such a way that it does not accept debit of amount more than Rs24,000.
According to bankers, for allowing withdrawal of Rs2.5 lakh, the servers and operating system needs to be changed accordingly. Once that change is made and other guidelines such as the type of documents to be produced for such transactions are issue, banks will be able to disburse the amount.
“My branch received a total three applications from people with wedding in their families. However, they could not carry out transactions as banks are still awaiting guidelines on Rs2.5 lakh withdrawal,” said a senior official of a nationalized bank in Ahmedabad.
Deserted Manekchowk
Once bustling with customers, especially ahead of marriage season, the bullion and jewellery hub of Manekchowk in Ahmedabad wore a deserted look. With people starved of new currency notes, the market has been witnessing a major slump in the business. Although, jewellery shops open every day, the transactions and purchases have plummeted to 10-20% of the normal business. Majority of jewellery showrooms in the area have been complaining of negligible business for the past few days