Mangaluru goes cashless; common man's struggles continue on 6th day

Mangaluru, Nov 14: Even six days after the abolishment of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, the coastal city of Mangaluru has failed to recover from the unexpected shock.

In fact, the demonetization move has affected pretty much every sphere of life — from getting provisions and eating out, to making routine payments such as rent and salaries to domestic help.

While making announcement of demonetization, the government has assured that banks would work on weekends too for exchange of notes. Ironically, on week days too the banks and ATMs are functioning partially thanks to scarcity of notes.

The government on Monday has extended the usage of existing Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 notes for select transactions till 24 November from the earlier deadline of 14 November.

This means that people can now use these notes at government hospitals, government-run cooperative shops, air-ticket counters, milk booths, petrol stations, international airports, to buy tickets at railway stations, to pay for medicines in government and private medical shops, to get cooking gas cylinders, and to pay court fees till 24 November. 

However, thanks to the scarcity of change, the government's relaxation has not improved the situation in the city.

No change in bunks

Petrol bunks are accepting old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, but you can only fill up for amounts in increments of Rs 500. The reason is that the bunk employees don't have Rs 100 notes to return as change. So if you want to fill fuel for, say, Rs 200, chances are you won't get Rs 300 back.

Market Woes

The future for hundreds of vegetable, fruits and other household merchants, who supply daily needs to entire city is in quandary. "From Sunday onwards I have stopped the purchasing of goods and will resume when everything turns to normalcy," says worried vegetable merchant Peter D'Souza.

Abdul Salam, wholesale fruit merchant at the market shares that they have given goods in credit to regular customers. "Since all are transactions are done in Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency, we have no other way out. For some we have given credit and asked our suppliers to wait for some days to clear their dues," he maintains.

Other merchants complain that they don't have enough change to tender with customers. "All customers are giving us Rs 2000 note. If they make business of Rs 200 or Rs 300, we have to give them change in Rs 100 notes. How can it be possible when bank themselves don't have Rs 100 notes," adds another lemon merchant.