District Collector N. Prasanth has sought the intervention of the Chief Secretary to address the cash crunch in Malabar region by asking the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to distribute cash directly to the currency chests in north Kerala.
In a letter written to Chief Secretary S.M. Vijayanand, the Collector said the Centre’s decision to demonetise Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 currency notes had severely affected Malabar region and the situation had gone worse in the past few days. The banks in Malabar region did not have sufficient supply of new currencies from the RBI to meet the demands.
Many people in the region were NRIs and there was heavy remittance which places more demand on currency exchange, he said.
The disruption to the banking system might endanger livelihoods of commoners and it might even provoke them and lead to law and order issues, Mr. Prasanth said.
