Cops struggle as thousands mob city branches

In a bid to avoid any untoward incident, as many as 3,400 personnel of paramilitary and Delhi police were deployed at all banks in the city to facilitate the demonetisation policy.

A senior police official informed that they have made elaborate arrangements, including quick reaction teams, for maintaining security in banks in view of the rush to exchange the now-invalid currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. The deployment has been made as banks will open on Thursday after Tuesday night’s announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the demonetisation of the two higher domination notes.

Besides the 1,200 paramilitary personnel and 2,200 Delhi police personnel that have been deployed, the home ministry has also kept about 1,000 personnel at standby for immediate deployment in case of emergency, official sources said. About 200 quick reaction teams are also positioned in various parts of the city. There are about 149 scheduled commercial banks, including 56 regional rural banks, with branch network of about 1.30 lakh across the country. Besides, the co-operative banks have also been asked to take deposit and exchange the old notes with the new ones.

“The day 1 of money exchange process went peaceful. Few PCR calls regarding indiscipline in queues were reported from few banks in the city but policemen controlled the situation,” said Dependra Pathak, joint commissioner of police.

He added that ATMs would resume function from Friday onward. All SHOs have been instructed to deploy policemen at ATMs also.