The Central government is creating an artificial famine of currency notes in order to push its agenda of digitisation of all financial transactions, the Bank Employees Federation of India’s Kerala unit has alleged.
But, the artificial cash crunch was causing immense hardships to the people, especially in the rural and semi-urban regions of the country, S.S. Anil, State general secretary of the BEFI said. He noted that while the shortage was a nationwide phenomenon, in States like Uttar Pradesh, it was not as harsh as it was in States like Kerala. Again, while public-sector banks felt the heat of the shortage, certain new-generation banks had plenty of cash.
Mr. Anil said majority of ATMs in Kerala had gone dry ahead of the Vishu-Easter season causing immense difficulties to customers. People in north Kerala were the most affected as cash flow was lean to the region compared with the rest of Kerala. RBI chests were far fewer in the region, thus curtailing cash flow. Moreover, the people in the region preferred cash transactions. Banks were told not to replenish ATMs so that they would go to bank branches which was time-consuming. This was a strategy to compel the people to go the digital way. However, poor people and customers in rural areas were bearing the brunt of this artificial shortage, he said.
He pointed out that though five months had passed since the demonetisation started, the RBI had so far replaced only 67% of the demonetised currency.
