If seven children rescued at Ranchi Railway Station being taken to Hyderabad as labourers on Sunday night are to be believed, the human traffickers have started milching demonetisation in one of the ugliest ways. The children have said that their families were lured by human traffickers with majorly new, and some old higher denomination notes to take them to Hyderabad.
“The children rescued last night past 11 pm are from rural parts of Hazaribagh, Ramgarh, Palamu and Chatra. All in 10-15 years of age have said that their families were given anything ranging from as low as Rs1,100 to Rs10,000 majorly in new currency notes. They were handed over to three men by one Saddam Ansari at Ramgarh Railway Station to be taken to Hyderabad by Jayanagar-Secunderabad Express Train,” said GRP Sub-Inspector Rajiv Kumar.
Kumar added that all three traffickers were caught then and there, but one Saddam Ansari was absconding. “He is claimed to be a seasoned player of a major human trafficking racket. It is not yet established whether he is the mastermind or just one among dozens. But capitalizing demonetization is something alarming, as villagers are running short of cash these days. They can easily become a soft prey,” said Kumar.
On the other hand, banks have said that they were doing their best to pull rural areas out of cash crunch. Many public sector bank officials said today that their branches were being given instructions to deal with the problem in best possible ways. The Chief Minister Raghubar Das in his recent meeting with Bankers Committee members last week had clearly ordered to provide cash to people in rural areas.
“There are reasons to believe what rescued kids have said. It is worrisome. We have directed our branches to provide villagers the last penny available with us. We have also asked our employees to educate customers and visitors in rural branches about easy ways to use their money online and through different electronic valets,” said Allahabad Bank DGM (Jharkhand Circle) SK Singh today.
However, experts claim that it might take some time to see cash availability back to normalcy. “It is a difficult time for banks. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is not providing smaller denomination notes in required numbers. RBI is focusing more on Rs2,000 notes, rightly so with its own reasons. However, those are useless until it supplies at least Rs. 500 new currency,” said a senior Punjab National Bank (PNB) official.
“We do appreciate state government’s support. But the problem is that it can only provide transportation facilities and some other things related to operation. But it can’t provide cash. The cash is to come either from RBI or from the people who have appeared hesitating releasing Rs100 notes back to the market. But both the sources have their limitations at this moment,” said the official.