There may still be serpentine queues outside ATMs in other states, 17 days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared crackdown on the black money by demonetising `1,000 and `500 notes, giving leeway to the Opposition to demonise the move, but Jharkhand is fast pulling off smooth transition to re-monetisation.
The State Government swung into action soon after the high value notes were banned and worked in tandem with RBI and various banks in order to ensure availability and distribution of new currencies. The result is that the people in Jharkhand, particularly in urban areas, are not complaining much of the cash crunch due to demonetisation of Rs 1000 and `500 notes.
Development Commissioner cum Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) Amit Khare told the Pioneer that the situation in urban areas has turned more or less normal as we have ensured that the cash reaches to people’s hands. “Now, our immediate challenges are how fast banks could reach out to the rural population and also make available new `500 notes in the ATMs,” he pointed out.
Around 2174 ATMs in the State were active and 1193 ATMs not active. 1370 ATMs have been recalibrated for `500 and `2000 currency notes
so far.
Khare said that soon after the high value notes were banned on November 8, our focus was on three points--first, to ensure security to banks and currencies; second, convenience to common masses and third, stopping misuse of currencies by anti-socials and extremists.
“We provided full security to the banks for currency management and deployed choppers to bring currencies from RBI Patna to Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Bokaro and Deoghar on November 11-12. `1000 crores were transported by train from Patna on November 13,” he added.
In all, the RBI has pumped in around `4000 crores new currencies to tide over the note ban difficulties. The deposits and exchange of the old `1000 and `500 notes in the banks have been to the tune of around `8,000 core so far.
“Besides, Chief Minister Raghubar Das also made an appeal to voluntary organisations and religious bodies to deposit their savings in small denomination notes in banks for the convenience of public,” he added.
Khare said that the State Government was aware of the difficulties being faced by the rural population.