Senior citizens, waiting for their turn to come to exchange Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes on Saturday, were understandably happy and hailed the Government’s decision to demonetize old currency notes of higher denominations and said that it will have a positive impact on the Indian economy in the long run.
The queue for senior citizens was starkly low and they were not complaining the little difficulty they found for the purpose of exchanging notes.
Banks across the country on Saturday served only to the senior citizens and their own customers who had their accounts in those banks for exchanging old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000.
“Even though, we are facing some problem in exchanging our own money…..we are ready to bear it for a greater cause. I have no problem at all,” said a retired PHED Executive Engineer DK Roy, who was waiting for his turn at SBI, Ashok Nagar branch.
“Problem is only with some politicians who want to take political advantage out of it and cover up their black money,” said Roy.
Those who also had witnessed 1978 demonetization believed that it hardly affected the general people as it was possessed by a certain class of people whose transaction was huge while this time everyone got affected as Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes are in transaction by more than 86 per cent of the people in this country.
“Rs 1000, Rs 5000 and Rs 10,000 notes in the year 1978 were used by only by a selected few, and were not in transaction by the common people; hence it did not affected the common man,” Roy recalled.
“While, this time demonetization had a greater impact as Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes are being used by every class of people and is a very common mode of transaction,” he added.
Roy opined that the government was trying to do something good as everyone knows that a parallel economy was being run and is damaging the backbone of the country. “If we really want to progress, the government will need money. So, efforts are being made to recover the black money through demonetization,” said Roy.
Businessman Rajiv Goenka also asserted that the demonetization did not affect common people in 1978 as the notes of higher denominations were possessed by only a limited people but, this time, Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes are in circulation among 86 per cent of the people.
“Moreover, the Government might have assumed that the things will get normal in 2-3 days which did not happen. They even did not have thought that so many people will throng the banks to exchange their notes,” said Goenka. All said and done…this overall process was going to benefit the common people in the long run; Interest rates will go down, property rates will come to its actual position with an increase in the employment opportunities for the youths, he added.
Another retired Engineer, however, was of the view that demonetization was the need of the hour as it had become difficult to identify the fake currency rampant in the market and to stop the black money. “We are already late it should have been done earlier as there was no way out to phase out black money from the market,” said retired Engineer Ram Sunder Dasaundhi who was also waiting for his turn to exchange his money at SBI Ashok Nagar branch on Saturday. It has definitely troubled people but all are ready to face for the betterment of this country, he added.
Another retired teacher also opined that the current move of demonetizing would have a greater impact on the country’s economy in the long run, and will also bring down the prices of commodities and also phase out black money.
“It could have been done in a better and planned way if they could have anticipated the problems faced by the people,” said retired teacher Emanuel Ekka.