Day One Of The Demonetisation Drama

Here’s what it takes to get your old notes exchanged. Beware: it’s a jungle out there.

WrittenBy:Aratrika Halder
Date:
Article image
  • Share this article on whatsapp

Fortune, they say, is fickle. Thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, I now know the truism to be, well, true.

subscription-appeal-image

Support Independent Media

The media must be free and fair, uninfluenced by corporate or state interests. That's why you, the public, need to pay to keep news free.

Contribute

On Tuesday morning, I felt rich, having withdrawn around Rs 8,000 from an ATM. Approximately 12 hours later, I had sunk below the poverty line because all the money I had in my possession was hours away from being worth exactly Rs 0. Why? Because the ATM I had visited had spat out only Rs 500 notes.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s so-called “surgical strike” upon black money was announced on November 8, at around eight o’clock, thus making it a numerologist’s dream and a little bit of a nightmare for the rest of us who were faced with the prospect of standing in queues to exchange old notes for new ones. In an effort to flush out those who have hoarded black money, the government made the surprise announcement that it was going to replace the Rs 500 notes with new ones and the Rs 1000 would be recalled (though that decision has changed since). A new Rs 2000 note would be introduced instead.

Brothers and sisters,

To break the grip of corruption and black money, we have decided that the five hundred rupee and thousand rupee currency notes presently in use will no longer be legal tender from midnight tonight, that is 8th November 2016. This means that these notes will not be acceptable for transactions from midnight onwards. The five hundred and thousand rupee notes hoarded by anti-national and anti-social elements will become just worthless pieces of paper. The rights and the interests of honest, hard-working people will be fully protected. Let me assure you that notes of one hundred, fifty, twenty, ten, five, two and one rupee and all coins will remain legal tender and will not be affected.”

(From Prime Minister Modi’s speech.)

As an honest, hard-working person, I can report that what went smoothly was the process of rendering the old notes worthless. Everything else has been a bit of a challenge.

According to the official announcements, the banks would be shut on November 9 in order to prepare for the avalanche of people who would knock on their doors on November 10. From what I saw, that wasn’t enough time.

Call me naive, but I thought I was getting to the bank early when I reached my bank’s branch in Malviya Nagar at 9 am. There was already a queue that looked like a just-fed python in hibernation. People had shown up as early as 7.30 am, I learnt.

Queues are usually good places to get information. Those ahead of and behind you are generally your best sources for nitty gritty like what form is needed, which counter you should go to, and so on. Today, though, there was mass confusion. No one seemed to be sure of anything and for some reason, people thought I was the one who knew things. Fortunately for them, I had read this. Unfortunately for me, that wasn’t entirely helpful as far as on-ground realities were concerned.

By 10 am, the pay-in slips that let you deposit cash in your account had run out. Many who had pay-in slips did not know what to do with them. There was confusion regarding the ‘Form 5’ that had to be filled to exchange old Rs 500 or 1,000 notes. Despite the fact that one was only supposed to be able to withdraw Rs 4,000 from the bank, it was the bank that was urging people to exchange as much as Rs 10,000.

No wonder, then, that at 9.35am, within 30 minutes of the bank opening, all the cash had run out. And so it was that my bank had no cash and the cash that I had in my bag was worthless. (#UrbanPoor.) I did the only thing that made sense to me at the time: I decided to pester the security guard. When had the cash run out? Had the old cash run out? Did they have Rs 2000 notes? Within about five minutes, I’d annoyed him enough to get one useful answer: more cash was on its way. Which meant I (and what felt like half of South Delhi) just had to be a little patient for a little longer.

I didn’t know this then, but this was what was happening all across the country. All the way in Deoghar, Jharkhand, the venerable State Bank of India shut down in the afternoon because it had run out of cash. In United Bank of India’s Hooghly branch, three cash runs were needed — that’s how many people queued up — and they were giving notes of Rs 100, Rs 50, Rs 20 and Rs 10 in exchange. The new notes that we’ve been seeing on television were scheduled to reach this evening.

There are a few of these new notes that have surfaced in the vicinity of the Newslaundry’s office. Sunny Agarwal, who runs a pharmacy in Sarvodaya Enclave, had got hold of a couple of Rs 2000 notes and proudly exhibited these magenta chits, upon request. The distribution of these new notes is one of the bigger challenges facing the NDA government’s demonetisation scheme. While they seem to be trickling into the metros, it will take longer to reach interiors. It’s also worth wondering how people who don’t have official ID (like Aadhaar, voter cards, PAN cards, driving licences etc) or who live in parts of the country that don’t have easily accessible bank branches will transition to the new currency notes. On the plus side, we have till December 30 to make sure we’ve all converted to what looks distinctly like Monopoly money.

The total amount of money that got demonetised is Rs 14 lakh crore and Reserve Bank of India’s South Zonal Regional officer Dr J Sadakkadulla has said that they have enough Rs 100 and other smaller denomination notes to fill this huge gap. This is good news for all of us, but the fact is that even 24 hours without the new notes has proved to be a challenge and a serious inconvenience for a wide range of people. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that he envisions an India that has a cashless economy and maybe that will happen, but at the moment, a vast majority depends upon cash.

Take, for example, Ram, who is a driver with Uber. A number of his passengers had paid him through Paytm on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the actual money he had in his wallet was all in Rs 500 notes. Net result: Ram didn’t have money to buy a meal. On Wednesday night, he told one of my colleagues at Newslaundry that he was going to have to skip dinner because till Thursday morning, when the banks opened, he was completely broke despite having cash.

These old notes seem to have thrown certain sections of Delhi into a panic. Several nursing homes and hospitals told Newslaundry that people were calling them, asking if they could give “donations” — they’d give the hospital the high-value notes that they (presumably) don’t want to declare and then, over the year, the amount could be “adjusted”. None of the organisations we spoke to have taken up these offers. Jewellers are also allegedly being hit up by cash-rich clients who are offering to buy gold. At a smaller scale, reports have come in of vendors — owners of vegetable stalls, cornershops and so on — being fleeced. Those who aren’t well-informed are stuck with cash they cannot use anymore and which they need to take to a bank.

In the two hours that I stood in queue, I ended up filling in 10 forms for my line-mates. My pro-tip for those planning to do this over the weekend: carry extra pens and have a pee buddy (ie someone who will keep your place while you answer the call of nature).

Suddenly, around 10am, there was a flutter of excitement that ran through the queue as news trickled down that the cash was about to enter the building. It came in a steel box that looked terribly flimsy, if you ask me. But at that moment, no one cared about its security. They just wanted the cash — through fair means, not foul.

It took another 30 minutes for the bank to get its act together inside. Meanwhile, outside, people got imaginative and mildly violent: they started pushing and shoving, and some of them tried to jump the queue. “I want to create an account!” one person claimed. Another insisted that he just wanted to access his locker. I don’t know what the manager told his staff, but this time, speed was of the essence. By about 11, I was inside, in the belly of the chaos that was the bank. It seemed all procedures had been thrown out of the window. Form 5? Pffft. Pay-in slips? Whatevs. Take the money, for the love of Modi, and leave.

Within seconds of me being bundled into the branch, I was directed to go to the last counter, the one that was exchanging cash. No one asked me for any ID proof — though those with cheques to deposit did have to show their identification papers — and I smoothly deposited my now-worthless Rs 500 notes into my account, thus magically transforming them into real money. Instead of depositing the cash into my account and making an entry, the man at the counter just took my notes and exchanged them for Rs 100 notes. He’d evidently had enough. He also had about eight more hours of this ahead of him, poor man.

It turned out my branch was actually quite civilised. Take a look at this footage from a Noida branch of State Bank of India:

subscription-appeal-image

Power NL-TNM Election Fund

General elections are around the corner, and Newslaundry and The News Minute have ambitious plans together to focus on the issues that really matter to the voter. From political funding to battleground states, media coverage to 10 years of Modi, choose a project you would like to support and power our journalism.

Ground reportage is central to public interest journalism. Only readers like you can make it possible. Will you?

Support now

You may also like