The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is trying hard to tide over the crisis triggered by the Modi government’s demonetisation move with people facing all sorts of problems. General Manager, RBI, Bhubaneswar, Sarada Prasanna Mohanty spoke to Subhashish Mohanty of The Telegraph about RBI’s plans to make things easy for the people
Long queues at banks have become a common sight but new Rs 500 notes are still nowhere to be found. When are people likely to get the new Rs 500 notes?
The new notes have reached the state and have been sent to different places across the state. The recalibration of ATMs has already been done. In Bhuban-eswar, people have already started receiving the new Rs 500 notes.
Can the business correspondents of banks collect money from people and exchange it?
We have banned it, as they don’t have the expertise to distinguish between fake and original notes. When they receive currency in bulk, exchanging it could be a problem for them.
But, there was an announcement that business correspondents would be allowed to collect money from people.
I am not aware. It’s the decision of the RBI and we have to carry it out. We don’t have confidence in business correspondents to handle big amounts at this juncture.
How much cash has the RBI distributed so far in the state in the post-demonetisation period ?
We have so far distributed Rs 7,500 crore. I am yet to understand how it vanished from the market. My sincere request to the public is not to hoard money. It’s not a commodity. There will be no dearth of cash in banks. If people continue to hoard money, it will be difficult to meet the demand of the masses for cash within a short span of time.
People should understand that by keeping their money in the banks, they would get interest on that too.
What is the daily requirement of cash in Odisha?
Earlier, it was Rs 300 crore. Now, suddenly it has leapfrogged to Rs 700-750 crore. But once the money is circulated in the market there would be no pressure.
How many ATMs are there in the state and how many of them are operational at present?
We have as many as 6,500 ATMs. Out of these 4,500 have become operational.
But we have found that most of the ATMs are getting empty within two hours of being filled up.
As there is a sudden demand for cash, there is pressure on ATMs. But we are replenishing the ATMs every few hours.
But the ATMs are not being filled up regularly even in Bhubaneswar?
We have formed a dedicated squad to ensure that the money vending machines are working properly and people don’t face any problems.
People of various social welfare benefit schemes have been badly hit because of the demonetisation
We have issued instructions to the banks to allow account holders to receive pension or any social security benefit scheme money after verifying documents.
When will indelible ink reach Odisha and banks will start using them so that the customers can exchange their old notes?
We are expecting that the ink will reach the state tonight. Once it arrives we will send it to the banks. It is a good step and will discourage unscrupulous customers visiting the banks several times to exchange money. This will help genuine
customers.
