Bhopal: Ever since the November 8 announcement last year, demonetisation has caused pain to a number of people. However, nine months hence, it is not just the mortals who are still troubled over the old currency notes. Several temples in Madhya Pradesh continue to receive these old high-value notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 dumped in their donation boxes.
Devotees, unable to find a way to dump their old currency notes, have found an easier way to shift their burden on the Almighty.
The famous Khajrana Ganesh temple in Indore which till March 2017 had old notes worth Rs 3 lakh, got a fresh headache when the donation boxes were opened recently. About Rs 50,000 in demonetised notes, besides gold and silver ornaments and some foreign currency were found in the boxes, one of the temple priests Pt Ashok Bhatt told News18.
“We have written a letter to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) informing them about the old notes lying with us and are awaiting guidance from their side,” he said adding that they are still waiting for a response from the apex bank.
Even the powerful ‘Mahakaal’ in Ujjain is not spared with the old currency blues. “We have regularly found old notes in our donation boxes and have taken them to the Allahabad Bank and Bank of India,” tehsildar and the co-administrator Mahakaal temple, Preeti Chauhan said.
Similar is the story of Shri Rukmani Balaji temple in Betul as they have continued to receive old notes in donation boxes even after so many months since the demonetization drive. “As regulatory measures, we either keep them in the donation boxes itself or with banks,” temple administrator Sunil Dwivedi said.
“We will seek guidelines from the RBI to dispose these notes,” Dwivedi said adding that they urge devotees not to donate old notes but to no avail.
This comes despite all these temples being equipped with modern means of offering monetary donations including cheques, online transfers and card transfers.
Interestingly, the Supreme Court had in July this year, asked the Centre to offer one last chance to persons still stuck with old notes because of genuine reasons. The Centre, however, had declined to set up another window to exchange demonetised notes saying it could defeat the very purpose of the exercise.
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