Daijiworld Media Network- Mangaluru (RJP)
Mangaluru, Nov 16: Majority of people in the region have wholeheartedly supported the demonetisation policy of the central government. Some have openly criticised it. Few are not saying anything as they do not want to show that thet are affected by the demonetisation. But despite all these things, queues in ATMs and banks continue.
People stand in queues without knowing whether sufficient money is there or not in the ATMs. Sometimes the money gets finished when people are in queue. But they still wait, thinking money will be loaded soon. But nobody has the answer as to when money will come. Toll free phones are not answered. Later in the evening on Tuesday, November 15, no queues could be seen as ATM shutters were closed. Only some banks had the courtesy to hang notice outside which read ‘No Cash.’
It is estimated the banks send around 40 % of the cash received to the ATMs and the rest is used in banks. Bankers do not have knowledge about the total amount of money the district receives a day.
As a consequence, people are now started feeling the pinch. Many said they are running out of groceries at home. Traders in Bunder, famous wholesale area of city, say that their business is badly hit. “Business was never like this before. We always deal in cash here. Credit system hardly does exist due to low margin. Shop traders do not have cash as consumers do not bring cash. They want to give us cheques. But who will go to bank with cheque and stand in queue? We cannot procure goods by paying cheque. So we cannot accept cheque. Our business is 90 % down now.” said a whole sale merchant
A check at shops proves this point. Most of the shops do not have enough goods. If the situation continues, cashless consumers will go grocery- less soon. There are already indications that prices of goods have gone up by 10 to 15 %. The unofficial ‘commission’ or ‘exchange rate’ of around 15 to 25 % on old scrapped notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 is also one of the major reasons for this inflation.
Properties registrations are completely down due to shortage of bigger denomination notes, which is a must to pay ‘black component’ of deal.
Sand price has come down by almost 50 % as construction industry is in dire straits.
The state of people in villages is worse with no supply of groceries and vegetables. They are dependent on whatever is available in their backyard.
Nobody may want to agree now that they have shortage of groceries at home. But if the supply of currency is not increased, they will have to stand in queues in empty stomach soon.