Slum dwellers get money exchanged at doorsteps

Chennai: Residents of a sleepy slum near the Tamil Nadu Housing Board colony in Saidapet are a happy lot even in the times of demonetisation though all of them had ‘invalid’ Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currencies.

Thanks to Equitas Holdings, a small service bank that opened counters at their doorstep and swapped their old notes for valid currencies of smaller denomination.

The Chennai-based small service bank, which started banking operations only in September this year and has five branches in this metropolis, shifted its operations to the slum area on Saturday after one of its employees gave the top management the “out-of-the-box” idea.

“We know that people in slums and those belonging to lower strata of the society would be the worst affected by the demonetisation move. So to help them we went to their doorsteps and converted the invalid notes into valid ones,” Raghavan H.N.K, head – customer banking of Equitas Holdings, told Deccan Chronicle.

More than 2,100 people who live in the slum area got their currencies converted on Saturday and the small service bank will go to another slum area on Tuesday and possibly on Wednesday as well.

Raghavan is tight-lipped about the next location since their drive depends on the amount of cash that they get from the Reserve Bank of India.

“We would like to help more people but all depends on the amount of cash that we receive. The next camp would either be a slum or an area where lower strata of the society lives,” he said. Staff of the small service bank camped at the slum for the whole day to help the residents fill forms and take photocopies of their proof of identity.

Arumugam, who works at a construction facility, said the bank saved his day by coming to his doorstep. “If the bank had not come to my place, I would have been inconvenienced a lot. There was no option other than to take off from work to exchange my currency. But I saved my day’s earnings and also got my money exchanged without losing on my income,” he said.

As chaos ruled the streets with long, serpentine queues reported in every part of the city and elsewhere, banks such as Equitas Holding provide a glimmer of hope for the people.

Will Modi ask for bribes to be given in cheques?

Even as the nation is slowly struggling to get acclimatised to the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currencies, a WhatsApp voice message which has been doing the rounds has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to purge the nation of corruption at all levels or ask the officials and netas to accept bribe money in cheques.

This first person account of a SSI entrepreneur Prasad of Hyderabad, painting a grim picture of the travails of the common man owing to  Modi’s ‘surgical strike’ on black money, passionately pleads with the PM to ensure justice to tax payers.
 Many like him who pay a monthly bribe of Rs 10,000 to operate his SSI unit and also the working class are ready to support Modi in his fight to weed out corruption.

While innocently seeking to know what the government is doing in return for the honest tax payers, he said the government officials, whose salaries are paid out of the tax revenues, don’t move a file without receiving bribe and the political party leaders including legislators and MPs heckle industrialists for hefty contribution.
 
“Will you enact a legislation mandating them to receive cheques instead of cash? I am willing to pay the bribe of Rs 10,000 every month, then. What are the facilities the government has to offer for us? No political party openly acknowledges the contribution its receives. I rather not pay taxes to help corruption to thrive,” he says.