AFP, New Delhi :
Long queues formed outside banks in India on Thursday as they reopened for the first time since the government’s shock decision to withdraw the two largest denomination notes from circulation.
Some banks in the capital New Delhi had received the new 2,000 rupee ($30) bill and a number of ATMs were working again, two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the 500 and 1,000 rupee notes would no longer be legal tender in a blitz against tax evasion and corruption.
Modi’s Tuesday evening bombshell prompted a late night rush on cash machines as customers withdrew smaller notes from ATMs before they closed at midnight in preparation for the turnaround, but millions were left stranded without cash.
“I have only come here to check if I can change my old notes for a new currency even if I don’t have an account with the bank,” R.P Singh, a newspaper vendor, told AFP outside a bank in New Delhi.
Long queues formed outside banks in India on Thursday as they reopened for the first time since the government’s shock decision to withdraw the two largest denomination notes from circulation.
Some banks in the capital New Delhi had received the new 2,000 rupee ($30) bill and a number of ATMs were working again, two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the 500 and 1,000 rupee notes would no longer be legal tender in a blitz against tax evasion and corruption.
Modi’s Tuesday evening bombshell prompted a late night rush on cash machines as customers withdrew smaller notes from ATMs before they closed at midnight in preparation for the turnaround, but millions were left stranded without cash.
“I have only come here to check if I can change my old notes for a new currency even if I don’t have an account with the bank,” R.P Singh, a newspaper vendor, told AFP outside a bank in New Delhi.
