The economy of Maner, Bihta, and Koelwar, which depends on sand mining and ancillary sectors, has taken a hit because of demonetisation.

Apart from agriculture, people in this region of Patna district depend on sand mining from the Ganga and Sone rivers and the associated transportation business.

On an average, 2,000 trucks move daily from the Ganga in Maner around 40km west of Patna, to various parts of Bihar, especially the north Bihar districts. But since the demonetisation announcement on November 8, the number of trucks ferrying sand from Maner has come down.

"A 10-wheel sand truck generally makes 15 trips a month from Maner to the north Bihar districts," said Mohammed Sonu Khan, a truck operator with eight trucks on the job. "But since November 8, the frequency has come down to just half. We have calculated that one truck has made just 15-20 trips in the past 49 days."

The reason behind this drop is cash crunch - a truck operator generally incurs a cost of Rs 35,000-40,000 in transporting sand to north Bihar where the sand is sold at Rs 40,000-45,000. Now, the problem is when the operator unloads a truck, the businessman purchasing the sand pays in old notes which is difficult for the operator to use.

The cash crunch is compounded in Maner, as the banks witness a huge rush of people and even most of the ATMs are dysfunctional. Maner, which has a population of nearly 2.5 lakh people, has six bank branches and an equal number of ATMs too of which only the State Bank of India ATM is operational.

R.N. Mishra, manager of Bank of India, said: "We have one ATM in Maner but it is closed because the machine has not yet been recalibrated. We have informed our seniors and they have assured that it will be recalibrated soon. " He claimed now when the rush for cash has dipped, the problem of smaller denomination notes is still on in Maner.

Satyendra Kumar, owner of Maner Sweets famous for its laddoos, said: "Due to shortage of small notes, our sale has come down by 30 per cent. Earlier, we used to prepare around 20-25kg of laddoos, but now the figure has come down to 10-15 kg a day."

The sale of lubricant and tyres has also come down. "As the number of trucks ferrying sand from Maner to other districts has come down, the sale of lubricants has come down too," said Dhiraj Kumar Pandey, owner of a lubricant shop in Maner. "The sale has come down by nearly 30-40 per cent."