NRIs queue up at RBI to exchange currency

Four and a half months after the Prime Minister’s dramatic announcement on notebandi, long queues of Non-Resident Indians and others who were abroad continue to wait stoically at the Reserve Bank of India to exchange their demonetised currency even as the deadline is set to end a week later on March 31.

Many NRIs complained on Thursday that they had been queuing up at the RBI office in the national capital for the last three days. Their patience running thin, some of them grimly pointed out that while they felt helpless, no representative of either the central government or the RBI has bothered to meet them, hear their grievances or take steps for redressal.

Om Prakash (73) on a wheelchair claimed he too had not been able to get inside the RBI despite queuing up for the past three days. Staying in a hotel with his son and a caretaker he has been spending several thousand rupees every day for ostensibly exchanging ₹10,000 in demonetised currency.

“Had I known about it—the chaotic situation, mismanagement and harassment I would not have come. First I tried to exchange my old notes at the regional branch of RBI in Chandigarh but they did not exchange the notes and cited vague reasons. Then I headed Delhi. The Government makes such a song and dance about Digital India, why can’t they just do it online?” he fumed.

Amarpal was in the Unites States on November 8. He returned in the middle of March and since then has been struggling to exchange ₹25,000. “Since most of us live in the US we could not do it earlier” he claimed.

Gurrnam Singh claimed to have been standing in the queue since 3 am. He had been standing in the queue for 10 hours without food and water. Men, women, senior citizens, he complained, were in the same queue and evidently there were not too many counters either. “I have Customs certificate but the queue does not seem to move or moves at a snail’s pace,” he added.

For Swaraj Kumari from Gurugram also Thursday was the third day she had queued up in vain. Leaning on a walking stick she said both her knees had been operated and it was not easy for her to queue up. But since it is mandatory to appear in person, she persuaded her brother and sister to accompany her.

“Senior citizens are also being made to struggle in the same line. No separate arrangements have been made for them,” complains her brother, Deepesh Khorana. Frustrated with their experience at RBI Khorana wrote a letter on behalf of his sister to the Editor of Hindustan Times.

Meraj who worked in Saudi Arabia has been camping in Delhi. Travelling from Gonda in Uttar Pradesh to exchange ₹25,000, his nightmare began after reaching RBI when he was told by others in the queue that he needed a certificate from Customs. “There was nobody at the airport to guide me. I was made to run from one counter to other but was left confused by the indifference of officials.”

“To me ₹25,000 is not a small amount. It is not black money. But I do not know now what I am in for.”