While on the one hand the city is struggling with the impact of demonetisation, on the other, many working professionals and youngsters have stepped up to help those waiting in long queues and bankers make transactions easier.
Karthik Ramamurthy, an entrepreneur, along with four others, stationed themselves at the State Bank of India branch in Thiruvanmiyur for around seven hours on Tuesday, filling out forms and explaining the process to the hundreds in the queue.
“Many were unaware about the deposit limits; they didn’t even know the basic rules. So we explained it to them, filled out their forms and also helped manage the crowds,” said Karthik. He was amongst the 200 people people who signed up with Chennai Tricolour Initiative, a non-profit organisation, to help the currency exchange process. The team at the organisation created a Google document where those interested to volunteer outside banks could sign up and find out about ATMs where notes were being dispensed, as well as the less crowded ones.
“I have been swamped with calls the whole day,” said Vijay Anand, founding member of the organisation. “Around 65 volunteers, including school children, have been on the ground helping people. We will be continuing this work till the end of the week,” he said.
“The idea came up after I personally faced a great difficulty in exchanging currency. I ended up with no cash despite visiting the banks several times. The ATMs were not working. There was nobody to guide us. So we decided to come up with this initiative,” he said.
The team held talks with senior officials of the State Bank of India, who were initially hesitant, but were soon asking for more volunteer assistance at all their branches. “They asked us to deploy two volunteers in each of their 210 branches. We however narrowed it down to 50, due to shortage of manpower. But we are very positive and will do our best to help the maximum,” he said
The team is also looking for ways to help people with no bank accounts, like domestic workers, who usually save money in their homes. “They are really badly affected. Right now, banks are hesitant to open new accounts but we are in talks and will help them open accounts soon,” he said
People who wish to sign up as volunteers and find out about ATMs dispensing currency in the city can log on tohttp://bit.ly/chncurrencyand http://bit.ly/chncurrency2 respectively.
