Demonetisation: Even RBI scrambles for cash

New Delhi: Not just banks, even the Reserve Bank of India scrambled for cash in three days since the announcement of demonetisation was made. The central bank's Ahmedabad branch give out coins to people who came seeking replacement of their invalid notes.

The RBI's regional office set up three counters for exchange of invalid notes but when it ran out of smaller notes, the officials chose to give out coins to people. Hanif Mohommad Shaikh, a tailor from Shahpur said," I came to exchange invalid notes worth Rs 4,000. I got the entire sum in Rs 10 coins, in two poly bags ". The RBI even had to close its counters when it ran out of coins also.

Many other banks were also constricted by inadequate supply of currency notes. They temporarily stopped exchanging notes and said,"This is because RBI disbursed only Rs 50 crore to each bank's currency chest. This is distributed to their branches and other banks linked to the chest. This left branches with little cash to dispense".