A lot has been written and reported in the media about the present crisis and the difficulties faced by the customers. But I feel all these have happened as the issue has been seen from the point of view of the customer only and nobody has bothered to go deep into the entire issue. It may be admitted that any such strong measures will lead to some temporary inconveniences to the people concerned. In the present scenario also the government has put the embargo on the withdrawals through ATM and from Bank only to ensure that the available stock of small denomination notes are not cornered by a few people and the money should reach all. It may be admitted that the government could not ensure adequate supply of Rs 100/- notes immediately, but to tide over that situation only it has put the limit f withdrawals in cash. At the same time, I understand there is no upper limit on the transfer transactions, as it does not involve cash. So anybody who has been using the internet banking, mobile banking etc services of the banks and traders having POS machines for receiving payments are not at all affected, I am sure. For quite some time now all the banks have been trying to migrate the customers to these channels, but people refused to accept the change. At least now, under pressure, I am sure people will move over to the alternate channels platform.
Regarding the inconvenience faced by the customers, the Bankers could have been more proactive in educating the customers and removing the panic fro their minds to reduce the long queues in the Banks. They could have effectively used the media and services of their elder colleagues (retired bank staff) for the purpose. I am sure the long queues seen in the banks in the initial days were due to the fact that people had become panic about getting money and not because everybody wanted liquid cash immediately. If the government and Banks had taken some steps to eliminate this element of panic, this would have been much easier.
Media are playing a negative role by highlighting the deaths of people standing in the queue, as if the death occurred only because the person was standing in the queue. People who feel discomfort, in whatever queue they are, should immediately seek medical help or help from others instead of letting themselves collapse on the spot, I feel.
I remember, as a school boy, when as external emergency was declared at the time of India China war in 1962, there were lot of restrictions on the movement of people, using lights inside the home etc. We had lived with that in the larger interests of the country. We have to only think that we are passing through such a situation of "Financial Emergency " in the country and co operate with the government now. At least from now onwards people should ensure that they do not make any cash dealings and all the dealings are done through banking channel only.
Yesterday I happened to hear one MP mentioning in a TV channel discussion that a poor family who got a loan of Rs 100000/- sanctioned for daughters marriage could not get the money from the bank because of the upper limit put, and he persuaded the Branch Manager to transfer the money to four Jan Dhan accounts with the permission of them and withdrew 24000/- each from the account to help the family!!!! Government had already clarified that the upper limit will be Rs 250000/- in the case of marriage needs and hence this step need not have been taken, I feel. By using other people to withdraw money from the persons account, the MP was in a way supporting money laundering activity, knowingly and the poor BM was made a pawn in his hands.
The need of the hour is educating and encouraging all customers to increasingly use the alternate channels offered by the banks and minimise dealings in cash in all fields, which will reduce the black money to a great extent.
I also fail to understand the arguments of the RBI about the need for re calibrating the ATM for dispensing the new Rs 500 and Rs 2000 notes, as I feel that only a small change in the relative software will suffice for this purpose
All said and done, I fail to understand the logic in introducing a higher denomination note (Rs 2000/-) in place of withdrawn lower denomination notes (Rs 1000/-)
