Western Railway flouts
RBI norms, shuns Rs 500 note
The indifferent attitude of the
Western Railway authorities of not accepting currency notes of Rs 500
denominations at its general ticket windows took its toll on Saturday
when a student missed his train towards Surat where he was supposed
to attend an interview.
According to the statement
issued by a student leader, a student of the Maharaja Sayajirao University
bought ticket for Surat and gave Rs 500 note, which the clerk at the
railway ticket window refused to accept saying that "it is an order
from higher authorities not to accept currency notes of Rs 500 denominations."
The student was reportedly going to attend an interview at Surat.
It may be recalled that
the Western Railway Vadodara division has stopped accepting currency
notes of Rs 500 denominations for the past one week after they started
receiving fake notes from the travellers. Sources at Western Railways
claimed that they have received fake currency notes of more than Rs
20,000 in the past six months.
By doing so, the railway
authorities are committing a legal offence by flouting RBI rules and
regulations. Also the district authorities have failed to take any action
against those who have issued the notification. When contacted district
collector Anil Mukim said that unless someone makes a representation,
it would be difficult to take an action in this regard. Mr Mukim said,
"We have already sent the news items appeared in newspapers to
the state government and expect them to take appropriate action on the
matter."
Earlier at the time when
the railway authorities had issued the notification, Mr Mukim had stated
that he would approach the railway authorities and also the state government
in this regard and discuss the issue with them.
According to the student,
when the railway clerk refused to accept the currency note, he tried
to explain the clerk that the note is of a latest series and not the
one from the fake note series. The student also tried to convince the
clerk by submitting his university identity card and driving license,
but the clerk remained unmoved and refused to accept the currency note.
The end result was that
the student missed his train and so also his interview at Surat. The
agitated student then approached some of the students’ leaders and informed
them about the issue. A group of student leaders approached the station
in-charge Mr Chatrasal and submitted a memorandum to him. However, Mr
Chatrasal maintained that the higher level officials would only take
the decision in this regard. But the effort to contact the senior level
railway officials also went in vain, as they were totally unaware of
the incident.
Divisional railway manager
K.C. Jena said that the issue was discussed at length on Saturday in
a special meeting with general manager of Reserve Bank of India Partha
Sarthy. He said, "The RBI general manager clearly indicated that
no agency can refuse to accept the RBI currency."
He added, "Mr Sarthy
has promised a special training for the railway clerks to identify the
fake currency notes." According to Mr Jena, the weeklong training
would start from Tuesday.
When asked whether the
notification about currency note of Rs 500 denominations would continue
or not, divisional commercial manager Manmohan Singh said that till
the employees are properly trained to identify the fake notes, the notification
would remain in force. He said, "It would take another weeks’ time
to train the clerks and in addition to that we would also install the
fake note detection machine to solve the problem."
Mr Singh also said that
the State Bank of India, which used to inform about the receipt of fake
notes after long period of time, has now decided to inform the very
next day of receiving the fake currency notes.
