Suri, Nov. 23: Young Mir Hasibul Ali had to call in help to carry the amount he had withdrawn from the bank. No, Hasibul had not hit a jackpot amid the demonetisation crisis. He had just been handed Rs 10,000 in two-rupee coins.

The 28-year-old farmer had gone to the private bank in Birbhum's Suri yesterday to withdraw Rs 17,000 to pay labourers harvesting his crop.

The bank gave Hasibul Rs 10,000 in two-rupee coins and the remaining Rs 7,000 in Rs 100 notes. The 5,000 coins, handed out from the bank counter in two plastic packets, weighed 30kg.

"The two packets were so heavy that I could not carry them home alone on my motorcycle. So, I called up my friend Sheikh Masiuddin and told him to come over to the bank and help me carry the money home," Hasibul said.

Masiuddin came to the bank in a bus. The two friends put the coins in two jute bags and returned home.

Hasibul's problems, however, did not end with the withdrawal because labourers are refusing to accept wages in two-rupee coins.

"The labourers I have hired to harvest my paddy don't want to accept the coins. I don't know what to do with the coins. I will approach local traders as only they can give me currency notes in exchange for the coins," Hasibul said.

An official of the private bank from where Hasibul made the withdrawal said the branch depended on the UCO Bank unit in Suri for money.

"They gave us money only in coins yesterday. Had we not accepted the coins, we would have had to turn away our customers," the official said.

A UCO Bank source said: "We have been hit by a currency note crisis. So we have been giving other banks plenty of coins since Tuesday. We have repeatedly appealed to the RBI zonal office in Calcutta but the flow of cash has not improved."