Bengaluru: Over a hundred people from across the State, who had gone to the Reserve Bank of India office on Monday afternoon assuming that they could exchange demonetised currency, staged an impromptu protest after bank officials refused to take the notes. The police had to be called in to disperse the crowd when the situation got tense.
After waiting for two hours in a queue outside the gate of the RBI office on Nrupathunga Road, citizens were informed by officials that the bank is not authorised to exchange notes in Bengaluru. “The Centre had extended the deadline for currency exchange up to March 31, but the facility is available only in offices of the Reserve Bank in Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Nagpur,” said a senior police officer.
After learning that they had wasted two hours, the customers started shouting slogans and created a ruckus following which the jurisdictional Halasuru Gate police were summoned to disperse the crowd.
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"It was a communication gap that caused the fracas. The officials concerned failed to clarify the Centre’s ordinance to the people who ended up waiting for two hours,” said a police officer.
The police have requested bank officials to put up a notice at the gate clearly stating that they can not exchange currency.