Bhutanese Currency, Paper Notes Being Used As Legal Tender In Assam And Mizoram

The demonetization of currency notes has impacted everyone,as close to 84% of all currency in use has stopped being a legal tender. Queues in banks and outside ATMs have been unending everywhere. Amidst this pandemonium, people in part of Assam are using Bhutanese currency as legal tender while residents of Khawbung village in Mizoram have started using paper notes.

In a bid to cope up with the scarcity of the new Rs 500 and Rs 2000 currency notes, an owner of a hardware store in the eastern Mizoram village has convinced the villagers that they should use pieces of paper as promissory notes to replace currency till the situation eases. On the other hand, People in Kokrajhar district, Assam are using Bhutanese currency exchanged against the devalued Indian currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 denominations, as reported by The NorthEast Today.Bhutanese currency is already in circulation in some parts of Assam mainly for

Bhutanese currency is already in circulation in some parts of Assam mainly for cross border transactions. Before demonetisation, Indian Rs 500 would fetch Bhutanese Rs 500 but it would only be worth Rs 400. But now, the Indian notes of Rs 500 are being exchanged for Bhutanese Rs 400, while a Bhutanese Rs 500 note is held at its face value.

The people of Kokrajhar district narrated their ordeal to TV reporters and told them that as the nearest banks and ATMs are located 50-60 km away, and they have to travel via bad roads to reach them. And since there is no surety that they would get the new currency, they resorted to using Bhutanese currency as legal tender. The people pleaded the government and said that if government could send mobile money vending machines, it would help them immensely.

People in Mizoram say that it was difficult to buy or sell anything. The cash shortage has hit the people so hard that they agreed to take an alternative arrangement of using promissory notes.

Different ways are being looked into by people amidst this cash crunch to ease the situation. Unorganised sector proceedings have remained volatile. Rural areas are the worst affected in this move as there are fewer options for people.

The Logical Indian requests the government that they create as much awareness as possible and deploy more micro or mobile ATMs to reach the people in rural and far flung areas.