People change notes but say it won’t impact BMC poll votes

Mumbai: People continued to spend hours in queues for depositing and exchanging Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on Thursday. However, many of them said that inconvenience caused by the Centre’s decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes last Tuesday may not impact their voting preferences in the upcoming civic polls in the city.

Anush Jain, who was waiting for his chance to exchange currency at the ICICI bank in Parel, said the BMC polls is a local issue and relates to basic civic facilities provided to the city. He said, “We are not disappointed by the demonetisation but over the manner in which the situation is being handled,” he said.

A branch manager with a nationalised bank said on condition of anonymity, “The Central government should have involved Central government agencies actively before starting to execute the whole activity of demonistisation efficiently. For example, the work of exchanging currencies could have been assigned to post offices and Indian Railways.”

Datta Pawar, a senior citizen from Lalbaug, said, “I think the decision is going affect the country’s macro economics calculation and could prove to be an helping hand for the economy of the country at large. I don’t think I will decide my voting preference based on this move. I have been residing in Parel for the past 77 years and I will vote according to my coporator’s performance in my ward.”

Wadala resident Tejas Shah said, “While I know the difference between Centre and local civic polls, I am anyway confused as to whom should I vote for. There are enough reasons to not vote for the saffron alliance but also there are enough reasons to not vote for the opposition. But deciding on basis of demonetising would be the last thing for me.”

To stop people from exchanging invalid currency notes more than once a day, banks have started applying indelible ink mark on the right hand index finger of customers. However, many banks said they have run out of ink and have thus requested the RBI to provide more ink. A branch manager said, “We are also keeping details of exchange of currency in our e-data list and are also using permanent markers temporarily to avoid any fraud.” Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India on Thursday asked people to not hoard currency as there is a sufficient supply of notes.