Thanks to the customer-friendly arrangements made by the authorities at main branch of State Bank of Mysore at B.H. Road in the city, waiting in queues to deposit and exchange demonetised currency was not a gruelling experience for customers here.
The bank has set up a helpdesk, where apart from providing complete information to customers on filling forms to exchange demonetised currency, the verification of the filled-in forms and identity documents furnished along with them, is also completed. In addition to this, the bank personnel also provided drinking water and biscuits to the customers who were waiting in line.
Mahesh Kumar M.A., Assistant General Manager of the bank, told The Hindu that on Thursday and Friday, it was noticed that many senior citizens, who were suffering from hypertension and diabetes, and many lactating mothers were finding it difficult to wait in the queues. The bank personnel thus began providing drinking water and biscuits for them at regular intervals.
Mr. Kumar said that initial experience proved that conducting operations such as receiving filled-in forms for exchange of notes, verification of the forms and identity documents, at a single counter led to more confusion.
To minimise this, a separate helpdesk was set up. After completion of verification, the customers were sent to the cash counter where they can get the demonetised notes exchanged with new ones. The experiment had proved to be time-effective, enabling the bank to serve more number of customers, he said.
Appreciation
Sadiq A., an autorickshaw driver, who is a customer of the bank, was happy with the arrangements and said that customers with limited education are unclear about the procedure of exchanging the currency. The possibilities of exploitation of such customers by touts are high.
The helpdesks should be set up at every bank to avoid such deceptive practices, he said.
