Thousands of tribal people feel the pinch of the demonetisation of Rs.1,000 and Rs.500 notes as they are not able to sell their produce for the last two weeks. They are also facing trouble in depositing and exchanging their money in banks. Around 3,000 families out of 12,500 in the tribal mandals under ITDA-Sithampet region could get Jan-Dhan bank accounts under the financial inclusion programme. NABARD and local NGOs had explained them the benefits of the banking system and made them to open accounts in nearby mandal headquarters such as Sithampet, Palakonda, Kotturu, Bhamini, and Veeraghattam.
However, they have to travel at least 30 km to reach the bank from hilly areas. Many villages do not have road network and transport facility. In fact, many farmers have regular income with the sale of their produce in shandies in places like Sithampet, Kusumi, Polla, and Dhonubhai.
Price fall
“We used to get around Rs.8 per piece of cauliflower. Its price has gone down to Rs.5 with the traders reluctant to buy them due to non-availability of Rs.100 notes.
Many of them are not taking even on credit basis as they are also facing troubles to transport them to cities like Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam,” says Arika Durgarao, a tribal farmer in Kotturu.
“With great difficulty, we could arrange Rs.800, all Rs.100 notes, to families in places like Dhonubhai and Kusumi. The local trader agreed to take old currency notes and give Rs.100 notes to the needy families,” says Nuka Sanyasi Rao, director of ARTS, a non-governmental organisation.
Plea to ITDA
People’s representatives of all parties urged the ITDA to provide exchange of notes for the tribal families since a majority of them don’t have banking facility.
Srikakulam Collector P. Lakshmi Narasimham has suggested the ITDA officials to reach out to them with the support of designated business correspondents of the banks concerned.
