Bhubaneswar: Several medicine stores on hospital premises insisted on change from the sick and relatives of infirm after the Union government’s freeze on high denomination currency such as `500 and `1000.
The common man’s misery multiplied with the closure of ATM kiosks in the city. At Capital Hospital, a flag-ship hospital of the state government, operators of a number of medicine stores were asking buyers to give exact change.
Jeetendra Kumar, whose mother was admitted to the hospital, said: ‘‘I bought medicine worth `320 and when I gave the shopkeeper a `500 note, he turned it down at first. After long persuasion he gave me the change.
Papu, whose sister was admitted to the hospital, said the ATM at Capital Hospital was also shut down. ‘‘At present, I don’t have any identity card with me to draw money from a bank. The security personnel told me the ATM will open at 7pm.”
Although the government had ordered hospitals to accept demonetizsed notes, it had not introduced any mechanism to provide smaller currency such as `100 and `50 to buyers.
The Apollo hospital medicine counters put up government instructions and were accepting `500 and `1000 only after submission of valid identity cards like voter card and Aadhaar card. An official of the hospital, however, said government cannot insist on adhering to norms in private hospitals. “See the huge problem the patients are facing due to government decision at the counters. But we are allowing exchange of money on submission of ID cards,’’ the official added.
Meanwhile, HCG Panda cancer-care centre at Cuttack, which had stopped taking denominated money, was ordered to accept money in addition to accepting cards. People had a tough time because several ATMs in the city were closed for long hours. Some ATMs which were opened in the morning went dry in the afternoon before they were closed.
Sriram Singh Rattan, a local, said he has been facing difficulties for the past two days. ‘‘I visited banks in Vani Vihar and Janpath area, but no one was open till noon. Some banks like Axis and IndusInd were opened but there were long-winding queues which disappointed me. I finally decided to go to my native place Belpahar to deposit money,’’ added Rattan.
Many people were found standing in serpentine queues in front of nationalised and private banks to exchange old currency notes of `1,000 and `500 besides depositing and withdrawing money.
Since Friday morning long queues were witnessed at almost every bank branch as panic-stricken citizens went to banks on the second day of their reopening after the demonetisation drive was announced Tuesday to fight black money, graft and fake currency.
Arindam Ganguly
Post News Network
