CITY TRADE

Trade and commerce in a city of 20 lakh people was thrown out of gear. 

The voice of Neelam Devi, who sells fish in Pir Muhani area, had turned hoarse from arguments as she refused to take Rs 500 notes from buyers. “My bohni (first sale) turned bad. The customer had purchased a kilo of Rohu fish worth Rs 150 but gave a Rs 500 note. I refused to accept it but he argued and left without the fish. It’s a loss as nobody will take the fish which has been cut up,” Neelam said.

Medicine shops had fewer people than usual. Akash Mittal, co-owner of Mittal Medical Hall on Nala Road, said he was thinking of shutting shop for the day because of lack of sales. “There is a 90 per cent dip in daily sales as we had to turn away customers coming with Rs 500 or Rs 1,000 notes because we are suffering from a dearth of smaller denomination notes. However, we have offered to take the big denomination notes from customers if they buy medicines worth the entire sum, but only those in urgent need of medicines are accepting it,” Akash said.

Mithilesh Kumar, who manages a Sudha milk booth adjacent to Sahitya Sammelan in Kadamkuan, said almost half of his customers walked away.

“It has brought certain difficulties for a brief period for the masses, but the government has also taken care of the probable difficulties to minimise them,” said Bihar Chamber of Commerce and Industries (BCCI) president O.P. Sah. “As stated by the Prime Minister, we should be ready to face small difficulties for achieving a larger goal.”

FUEL PUMPS

Fuel pumps witnessed continuous rush and chaos since Tuesday night as people made a beeline for them. Some of the pumps had to shut down for a few hours after crowds increased incessantly and a few people insisted on tendering Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes even for buying fuel worth Rs 100 or Rs 200.

However, the pumps did brisk business and several of them remained open. Awadh Kishore, who was managing operations at a Hindustan Petroleum retail outlet on Exhibition Road, said customers were getting their vehicles filled to the brim. “Fuel worth over Rs 6 lakh has been sold since Tuesday midnight at the pump,” he added.

The petrol pumps insisted on giving products for Rs 500 or Rs 1,000 if people submitted such notes, and most of them obliged. Bihar Petroleum Dealers’Association president P.K. Singh said there were around 2,200 retail outlets (fuel pumps) across the state and pointed out that such a condition was imposed after their stock of notes of smaller denominations got over.

On the spurt in sales at fuel retail outlets, Singh said: “It could be attributed to the fact that we had been instructed to accept Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes for two days.” 

The future, he felt, was worrisome for the petroleum dealers.

“The spurt will be followed by a sharp drop in sales after November 11, when we will also stop taking the higher denomination notes currently in circulation. Since most of the people have got their vehicle tanks full, they may not turn up at petrol pumps for around a week after,” Singh said.

WEDDINGS

The cash crunch hit people preparing for weddings in their families. Many had withdrawn money — mostly Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes — to spend during the wedding ceremonies. Now they will have to run to either banks or post offices to convert that amount into new notes. Fifty-five-year-old Geeta Devi’s son Ravi Pratap Singh, a resident of West Lohanipur, was tense as he had Rs 1 lakh cash with him.

“My son’s wedding is on November 26 and I had withdrawn the money from my savings a few days back and this money was for the tent-house owner, musical band, food, decoration, clothes and others,” Geeta said. “The sudden scrapping of notes has put 
us in a soup.”

Manoj Kumar Singh (60), a resident of Kidwaipuri whose daughter Soni Kumari will get married on November 28 in Patna, faces a similar situation. “The Modi government should have given some time to the middle-class people. I welcome the decision but it will create problems for me. I have hundreds of things to complete. Being the father of a daughter, there is hardly anytime left. I really do not know what to do,” said Manoj.

TRAIN TICKETS 

At many counters in Patna Junction’s computerised ticket booking centre, supervisors were accepting Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes but at other counters they were refusing.

Akhilesh Prasad, 37, was rejected by a ticket supervisor when he produced two Rs 1,000 rupee notes. Another resident, who wanted to book a ticket to Pune, said: “The lady at the counter did not accept the Rs 1,000 note and asked me to bring change. Who will give me change in this situation? I was told that passengers will not any face any problem at railway stations while booking tickets.”

Suveek Dubey, 31, of Kankerbagh, did not face problems and said a man at the ticket counter happily accepted the Rs 500 note.

Asked about passengers’ complaints, East Central Railway’s chief public relations officer Arvind Kumar Rajak said: “There must have been limited change and the staff at ticket counters cannot generate change so cent per cent compliance will not take place. Passengers have to cooperate as there would problems after the change gets exhausted.”

HOSPITALS

Many private hospitals stopped accepting Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on Wednesday, triggering panic among residents. Some of the private hospitals asked people coming with the old denomination notes to use their debit or credit cards to pay the consultation fee and other bills while some asked people to give cheques and drafts.

Madhav Mahto from Sheikhpura district had to face problems when he went for taking consultation at a private hospital in the Raza Bazaar area. 

“I had to pay Rs 800 to the hospital as consultation fee. I had two notes of Rs 500 denomination but the hospital staff refused to accept them. Somehow, I got the change from another patient,” said Mahto. Paras Hospital’s public relations officer Suman Kumar admitted that the hospital stopped accepting Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on Wednesday. Managing director of the hospital Dharminder Nagar said many patients did not have credit or debit cards and were facing hardships.

Sunil Kumar Singh, an ophthalmologist who has his clinic in Kidwaipuri, said he was asking people to pay his consultation fee by cheque or draft.

AIR TICKETS

Fliers on Wednesday did not face any trouble as all airlines operating from Patna airport accepted Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes for flight tickets at the airport ticket counters. An IndiGo official said: “According to the announcement made by Prime minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, we are accepting Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes for ticket purchase. However, this will only apply to ticket purchase and that too till November 11, as per the announcement made by the PM. We will not accept Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes from November 9 midnight for services, including in-flight sales and excess baggage charge.”

All other airlines, including GoAir, Air India and Jet airways, will follow the diktat.

PICTURES BY RANJEET KUMAR DEY AND NAGENDRA KUMAR SINGH