Home ministry official holds meeting with locals in Nawanshahr

A senior official with union home ministry today held a meeting with bankers, farmers, traders and businessmen here to seek suggestions for addressing the "problems" they were facing due to demonetisation of the old currency.
Dalip Kumar, a Union Joint Secretary (Home Affairs), New Delhi, today visited the town and held a meeting with different sections of the society.
Locals including farmers and traders urged the official to covey to the Union government that the cap of Rs 50,000 fixed on withdrawal of money was quite insufficient and it needed to be raised on urgent basis to save trade and industry.

The Joint Secretary reportedly assured them of conveying their concerns to the government.
The Lead Bank Manager V K Sharma, apart from giving out the information concerning calibration of ATMs in the district, told the Secretary that new currency notes in the denomination of Rs 500 were yet to reach the district.
Meanwhile, a group of Non Resident Indians (NRI) who were on Punjab visit claimed that they were adversely affected by the scrapping of old currency.

Led by Rajpal Singh, NRIs who are settled in the US, Canada, the UK, and UAE said that they were clueless on how to exchange the scrapped Indian currency which is in their possession to cater to their day to day needs here.

They submitted a memorandum to the government through the local district administration here saying that every year in winter hordes of NRIs visit their motherland to meet their families, relatives and to attend marriages and such other social functions, besides visiting their religious shrines to pay obeisance.
But this year they were facing grave problems due to the scrapping of high currency notes, Singh said.
NRIs have urged the government to allow them the facility of withdrawing more cash from their accounts in view of their usually short stay in the country.
The deputation also urged for setting up of separate counters in banks to deal with their problems.

Rajpal Singh said in view of "hardships" triggered by non-availability of Indian currency while many NRIs have cut short their visit and returned to foreign countries, many others who were to visit India have started getting their tickets cancelled.
He said the government must come up with a plan to ensure hassle-free exchange of Indian currency which the NRIs usually keep in their homes for emergency situations.