Unable To Exchange Demonetised Notes, This Hearing Impaired Woman Threw Savings Of 15 Yrs Into A River

Recently, the Indian Central Bank, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in a report found that after 22 months of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2016 demonetization drive, 99.3% of the demonetised currency has been returned. The “black money counter” move which was aimed to “curb terrorism” has failed, claimed many. This news acted as an insult to injuries for many common people who had to suffer in the hands of the unplanned and unprepared demonetisation. One such victim, Meenakshi, who is a speech and hearing impaired domestic help in Karnataka shares her woes.

According to The Hindu, the 41-year-old, Meenakshi, threw away ₹1.39 lakh worth banned currency notes, that she had saved over years, into the Hemavati river. She had been saving the money for the last 15 years, to build a small house of her dreams.

“She stopped taking food after she realised that her hard-earned money holds no value any more. For several weeks, she was upset. We threw the currency into the river after neighbours and friends pointed out that keeping it would invite trouble,” said her 70-year-old mother Lakshmidevi while speaking to The Hindu.

Ms Meenakshi earns about ₹1,500 a month by working as a domestic help and gets ₹1,200 as a pension. With this money, she survives in a rented house along with her mother and brother, who is also speech and hearing impaired.

Her dream for a house was shattered

After November 8, the day when PM Modi rolled out demonetisation, her relatives asked if she had any of the demonetised currency. She refused to convey anything, fearing she may lose her money. “She did not understand then that her money would be useless. She understood it only now after her employer told her,” said one of her relative.

By the time, Meenakshi, who does not even have a bank account understood the consequences of demonetisation, the last day to deposit old currency in banks — March 31, 2017 — had passed.

After the family discovered the money that Meenakshi had kept with her, they met several officers in regard to get it exchanged. Both mother and daughter duo met senior officers of the Hassan district administration, approached several banks in Hassan and also met former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, but their efforts were in vain.

“I went to Bengaluru as well to meet an officer. Finally, we threw the notes into the river, fearing the police may take action against us for keeping these banned notes,” said her mother.

Demonetisation

According to the report, out of the Rs.15.41 lakh crore of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes in circulation pre-demonetisation, almost Rs.15.31 lakh crore notes worth have been returned. Which means, just a sum of Rs. 10,720 crore of the baned currency did not return to the banking system.

According to NDTV, the RBI has taken an awfully long time to count the currency that was returned in the limited period, which was provided by the government to exchange or deposit the demonetised notes. The RBI in its annual report for 2017-18 said that the “exercise is finally over”.

Arun Jaitley hails Demonetisation again

After this, finance minister Arun Jaitley claimed that PM Modi’s widely debated demonetization move has resulted in stronger economic growth and higher tax revenue. In his reply to the opposition’s claims that demonetization gravely failed in its objectives, he said in a Facebook post that the purpose of demonetisation was not defeated as it was done to make India more tax compliant.

Also Read: After 21 Months Of Demonetisation, 18,135 SBI ATMs Still Can’t Dispense New Notes: RTI Reply