Mumbai: Four months after the Central government demonetised 500- and 1,000-rupee notes, city resident Arrshie Singh, an ardent supporter of the move, now finds herself at its receiving end.
Ms. Singh, 47, an interior designer, has sent a desperate appeal to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to help convert ₹7.5 lakh in discontinued notes, found tossed among her mentally ill brother’s belongings at his residence in Chandigarh. Till date, she has received no help from either.
The RBI has allowed Indians who were abroad in November-December 2016 to exchange scrapped notes till March 31 and those living abroad till June 30. The notes can be exchanged at RBI offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Nagpur.
Ms. Singh’s appeal says her 57-year-old brother Avinash Singh, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, has undergone treatment at the Arya Hospital, a Chandigarh-based neuropsychiatry centre, and is currently admitted to Chaitanya Institute of Mental Health in Pune on his doctor’s advice.
A few weeks ago, he was evicted from the Chandigarh house where he was staying by his half-sister, who is its owner. When relatives went to collect Mr. Singh’s belongings, they found a bag containing ₹7.5 lakh in demonetised currency on his lawn, lying among his other possessions. The money was his mother’s life savings, handed to him by relatives after she died on July 26, 2012.
“His condition was such that he did not trust anyone,” says Ms. Singh. “After our mother died, I kept telling him to give me the money so I could invest it, but he kept telling me to mind my own business.”
Difficult childhood
The siblings were separated in childhood after their parents’ divorce. While Ms. Singh went with her father, her brother went to live with his mother and stepfather in Chandigarh. Ms. Singh says she has been on her own since she was 18, and would occasionally visit her brother. “During those visits, I knew there was something wrong: he had no friends, and couldn’t hold a job.”
After his parents died, Mr. Singh lived alone, and his relatives organised a meal service for him. Ms. Singh knew their mother had left money, but her brother would not part with it. His half-sister evicted him based on a court order [her father had bequeathed the house to her] on February 12. “My aunt, who went to collect his belongings, found the money on the lawn. I got to know of it on February 18,” she says. By then, it was too late to exchange the money.
Nevertheless, she wrote to the PMO and on February 27, visited the RBI headquarters in the city. While she received an automated reply from the PMO, she was told at the RBI that nothing could be done in special cases like hers in the absence of directives from the government. The RBI did not respond to questions sent by The Hindu .
Mounting expenses
“I’m not rich enough to keep spending on his treatment. I’m single, with limited means. The treatment will be long-term,” says Ms. Singh. She is already paying ₹25,000 a month including medicines to the Pune facility, which she says is one of the cheapest.
Doctors who examined him said his symptoms had progressed to the ‘negative’ stage, wherein he was cut off from the world and was always suspicious. “Even in hospital, he’s holed up in his room. He thinks everyone is conniving against him and has forced him to be there,” she says.
Ms. Singh has no idea how the problem will resolve itself. “My brother is now homeless, penniless and mentally unstable. I live in a one-BHK home in Mumbai and cannot afford to keep him here and care for him.” The only recourse now, she says, is to move court. “This is not black money and we need the PMO’s help.”
While she agrees with the principle behind demonetisation, she says the government should have given a thought to special cases like hers. “I want it to benefit the most number of people.” Her bigger worry is, she has no clue about what to do with the money. “They’re saying it’s illegal, but what do I do with it? There’s no platform to voice the problem either.”
