Mobile vans for currency exchange

Nitish Sharma

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Tribune News Service

Ambala, November 16

To give some respite to people living in the remote areas, the Postal Department has decided to send mobile vans to villages to exchange currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 after demonetisation.

Chief Postmaster General Col Sukdhev Raj said: “For the convenience of the general public, especially people living in the remote areas, it has been decided that the department will reach villages where a large number of people are finding it difficult to get the currency notes exchanged.”

The initiative was launched from Samalheri village in the district yesterday when a mobile van reached there to exchange scrapped currency notes. In the village, Rs 10 lakh of over 200 people were exchanged within a couple of hours. However, no such activity was carried out today in the absence of adequate cash.

As per the information, the Postal Department has exchanged Rs 5.83 crore in post offices across the state yesterday. The exchange was Rs 7 crore today, while the requirement for the day was Rs 16 crore.

Sukhdev Raj said: “The department is not getting enough cash from banks as they are also facing the shortage. Against the requirement of Rs 16 crore, we only got Rs 7 crore today. The shortage of currency notes is creating some problem. The scheme could be launched across the state if the department gets enough cash.”

“The Divisional Superintendents have been told to make such arrangements if they find that they have enough cash for the day. There are 6,500 villages in Haryana and it is not possible to reach every village. Hence, it has been decided that district-level officials will identify the villages where the exchange will be done. The identified villages will be the centre for neighbouring villages,” he added. The Chief Postmaster General said: “We are planning to make such arrangements for places like hospitals and markets, too, where people are facing some inconvenience.”