Scores of people who turned up at some banks to exchange Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 currency notes on Thursday returned disappointed as officials refused to entertain them citing non-availability of indelible ink.
The Centre has made marking the right index finger with indelible ink mandatory for cash exchange.
An official of the Reserve Bank of India, when contacted, said that the supply of indelible ink would normalise on Friday.
“We have provided supply to some banks. Also, we have given references of the suppliers in Mumbai and Mysuru to the banks to source themselves. The supply would normalise on Friday and it depends on the proportion of the branches each banks have,” he said.
Chennai has 1,462 bank branches as of March 2016, accounting for 15 per cent of the total branches in the State, according to the State Level Bankers’ Committee.
On Thursday morning, Bank of Baroda branch at Purasawalkam branch put out a notice saying that no exchange of notes would be possible since they did not have the ink supply.
Bank officials removed the notice later.
State Bank of India officials said they have not got any supply yet and that they also dropped the proposal of sourcing cloth marking ink from dhobis.
“We have already sent the indelible ink to Tamil Nadu. This would be distributed through the RBI,” said C. Harakumar, general manager, Mysore Paints and Varnish Ltd.(MPVL), the firm which supplies the ink.
Meanwhile, banks and ATMs ran out of cash, and some banks even ran out of Rs. 100 notes, dispensing only Rs. 2,000 notes.
“We have to manage with Rs. 100 supplies and Rs. 2000 notes. The Rs. 500 notes would be available only after November 24,” said a State Bank of India official.