Demonetisation: More savings accounts opened in Head Post Office

People wait in long queues in front of counters to open savings accounts

In the wake of demonetisation of high value currency notes, a large number of people have started approaching post offices to exchange money.

Over the last couple of days, over 50 savings accounts have been opened in Thoothukudi Head Post office as it would facilitate the account holders to deposit the demonetised Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 currencies.

Long queues

People were seen waiting in queues as three counters were opened in the Head Post Office to enable the customers to open savings accounts. Apart from doing their regular works, the postal staff were engaged in exchanging the demonetised notes in two special counters.

Ever day Rs. 6 lakh to Rs. 8 lakh had been exchanged here, reliable sources told The Hindu on Monday.

Moreover, postal ATMs have also been functioning effectively and account holders were allowed to withdraw a maximum of Rs.2,000 a day. However, there was no adequate supply of fresh currency notes from banks to meet the growing demands of people. Besides, additional currency note counting machines and fake currency note detectors were required, sources said. Despite these shortcomings, the postal staff had been rendering their services to the public, the sources added.

Most of the people, who were seen waiting in the queue at the post office, said with the new Rs.2,000 currency note it was hard for them to buy commodities in grocery shops since the shop keepers could not give the balance amount. Fresh currency notes of Rs.500 should have been released initially and circulated through banks instead of Rs.2,000. Cash in lower denominations were not adequately available in most of the banks, they pointed out.