New Delhi: With no respite to the common public queuing up outside banks for the 12th day since the banks reopened after the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8, the national organisation of bank workers has suggested that the procedure to exchange old notes should be shifted outside the banks to other centres. The move, they said, will prevent the hampering of daily functioning of the banks. Long queues were witnessed outside banks and post offices, even as a 49-year-old vegetable vendor died on Monday afternoon while standing in a queue outside a bank to deposit Rs 50,000 in demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, the police said.
The incident occurred outside the Oriental Bank of Commerce branch in Najafgarh area where Satish Sharma collapsed around 2.30 pm. The police said that Sharma, a resident of Keshav Puram in West Delhi, was standing in the queue since 11.30 am.
The police said that Sharma was rushed to Mata Chanan Devi hospital in a police vehicle, but was declared dead by doctors. “The exact reason behind Sharma’s death is yet to be ascertained. It seems that he suffered cardiac arrest while standing in the queue. The fact will come after his autopsy report,” the officer said.
For better crowd management, the bank workers organisation said that retired bank employees should be involved in the exchange of the notes so that the regular bank works such as deposits, clearance of the cheques, fixed deposits, locker operations, issue of debit and credit cards does not suffer.
People continued to queue outside the banks and the ATMs to withdraw cash. “I came to the bank for the first time since the note ban and it has already been half-an-hour that I am waiting,” a financial advisor with Genpact, standing at the far end of the queue outside Axis Bank, said.
He hoped to get some cash in hand before the bank closed their business for the day. He had specially taken a day’s leave from office to be at the bank.
Another man trading in foreign exchange, standing outside the same bank, said that “although the wait is same as it was on day one, I think it’s a good move overall”.
Also on Monday, the police seized over Rs 49 lakh in old high-value currency notes from a man, who was taking the money to Haryana, on Tikri border in West Delhi. Dinesh (28) was apprehended on Sund-ay night.
