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Journalism of Courage
EVEN AN hour after the State Bank of India’s Chandni Chowk branch opened its gates on Thursday morning, hundreds of customers, who had gathered outside the bank since early morning, still occupied the pavements, hoping to get inside. Amid heavy police deployment, a bank employee spoke into a loudspeaker: “We request all of you to stand in a queue. Forms are over. We are getting them photocopied. Please be patient. Also, beware of pickpockets.”
WATCH: Serpentine Queues Outside Banks To Exchange Rs 500, Rs 1,000 Notes
Less than 200 metres away, a similar crowd thronged a photocopier’s shop. “We were told that the banks will open at 8 am. I reached the bank a few minutes before 8 am but it was closed,” Mukesh Shukla, a rickshaw-puller, who hails from Hardoi district in Uttar Pradesh, said while getting his documents photocopied.
At Delhi University, customers, holding forms and copies of their identity proofs waited outside the State Bank of India branch. Two shops away, the General Post Office (GPO) seemed deserted with not more than 10 people lurking its hall, of whom, at least four were employees. “We have run out of the lower denomination currency notes. If we do not receive fresh currency tomorrow, it won’t be possible for us to exchange notes,” a GPO official said.
“Except for a few PCR calls, day one of the money exchange process was quite peaceful,” said Dependra Pathak, JCP (spokesperson).
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