Coop banks not changing notes, say customers

Our Correspondent

Sundernagar, November 17

Customers here claimed that they were facing a lot of inconvenience at 50 branches of state cooperative banks in the district as most of them are not exchanging notes of Rs 500 and 1,000.

Due of this attitude of officials of the HP State Cooperative Bank, customers are a harassed lot as they were asked by the officials to get the old notes deposited first and then they were allowed to withdraw the amount.

As per information received from various branches in the district, the officials insisted on depositing the cash first and then withdraw it and were not exchanging the old currency notes. This practice was going on in all major branches.

Mandi district manager Jeet Ram Bhardwaj said he had not received any complaint from anyone regarding not exchanging old currency notes. However, he assured that no one would face such problem in future.

Amar Chand Verma, president, Himachal Pradesh Upbhokta Sangh has urged the Chief Minister to initiate legal action against bank officials who were not following RBI guidelines.