Currency pangs: Ex-serviceman dead in queue in MP, villagers sleep outside banks

Special Correspondent

NewsBits.in

Bhopal: Demonetization continued to take its toll in Madhya Pradesh with a 70-year-old retired army man succumbing in a bank queue at Bhind district headquarters on Thursday.

A day earlier, a 23-year-old man had died of cardiac arrest in Ratlam district after literally running home from a bank queue to get his Aadhar card but couldn’t locate it.

The toll related to demonetization in MP has reached about half dozen.

On Friday, the ex-serviceman, Babulal Valmik, 70, collapsed while standing in the queue before State Bank of India (SBI) on the Bhind district collectorate premises. He was declared dead upon arrival in hospital. He had been in the queue for more than five hours.

In Ratlam, 23-year-old Sanjay Prajapat was disturbed as his family could not procure essentials like flour, pulses and vegetables due to lack of new currency notes.

His father who continued to be in queue when Sanjay rushed home was called back when Sanjay was declared brought dead in hospital.

Miseries of common people continued across state and especially for rural people, who have limited access to banking.

Though the union finance minister Arun Jaitley claimed on Thursday that queues before banks and ATMs had shortened, villagers were found sleeping in the open before banks in Chhatarpur and Jhabua so as to not miss their chance in queue.

These villagers failed to get old currency exchanged or withdraw fresh currency despite being in queue for over 12 hours, they told local media.

Meanwhile, incidents related to crunch of new currency continued to pour in from across state.

People had a scuffle with a police constable in Porsa of Morena after police resorted to cane charge to control rush of people outside the local SBI branch.

A shopkeeper in Umri of Bhind was beaten up and threatened with life after he refused to accept old Rs 500 from some local villagers.

A police complaint was lodged in Rewa when the local Oriental Bankrefused to accept a deposit of Rs 5000 in Rs 10 coins from one Rahul Mishra.

(Photo Courtesy: Naidunia.jagran.com