Employees of around 300 primary credit societies in Ernakulam district participated in a protest march here on Wednesday against the demonetisation of higher denomination currency notes.
Chairman of Cooperative Protection Council and president of Ernakulam District Cooperative Bank N.P. Paulose said there were around 300 primary societies in the district engaged in money transactions, including acceptance of deposits. Of them, nearly 200 are agricultural credit societies. There are around a hundred societies that are engaged in funding agricultural improvement and related activities.
The societies have deposits ranging between Rs.20 crore and Rs.200 crore. The money belongs to the society members. However, for nearly two weeks now there are little transactions in the societies as the demonetised currency notes are not being accepted by them.
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“Transactions even at the District Cooperative Bank, the apex bank representing the societies, has slowed down considerably because the demonetised currency notes are not being accepted as per the Reserve Bank of India directive,” said an official.
Mr. Paulose said the demonetisation threatened even the future of the employees of primary societies as there was no certainty about what would happen to the societies’ assets and deposits.
The protesting primary society members marched from the Kerala High Court to the office of the Income Tax Commissioner where they held a day-long dharna. Convenor of the Cooperatives’ Protection Council M.E. Hassainar welcomed the protesters. District Congress president V. J. Paulose and district secretary of the CPI(M) P. Rajeev were among those who addressed the protesters.
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The union of retired employees of Ernakulam District Cooperative Bank said the Union government’s move was a big setback to the cooperative sector. The move was anti-democratic, said a statement issued by the retired employees’ union here.
Rush continues
The rush at the counters of a few ATMs that were operational continued on Wednesday. According to sources, only about 40 per cent of the ATMs in the urban areas had cash and most of them ran out of cash within a few hours.
There are around 1,400 ATMs in the district. The Union Bank of India, it is learnt, had filled 60 of its 90 ATMs with cash. Six of these ATMs were filled with the new Rs.2,000 currency notes while the other machines dispensed smaller denomination currency notes.
Banking sources said the rush for exchanging currency notes was manageable on Wednesday and that currency replenishment was expected on Thursday.
Use of indelible ink
Though early reports indicated that indelible ink would be used on the right index finger of people to prevent people repeatedly exchanging old currency notes for new, sources said the ink would be used only in the metro areas for now.