Banks to remain open on Saturday and Sunday to help people

Banks will reopen tomorrow and remain open on upcoming Saturday and Sunday, to help people swap 500 and 1,000 rupee notes which are now banned, said the Reserve Bank of India.

It was speculated that two-day off at banks, followed by a second Saturday, Sunday and Guru Nanak Jayanti will affect the process of exchange of old currency notes badly.

However, Reserve Bank of India issued a statement and clarified that banks will function on November 12 and 13th.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday declared Rs 1000 and Rs. 500 as illegal tenders. He also asked the note holders to exchange the currency within a time-frame of 50 days, i.e. from November 11 to December 30. Besides Banks, ATMs have also been shut by the government for two days i.e November 9 and November 10.

To avoid the chaos in common public, the government is taking up several measures and suspension of toll tax is one of them.

Besides this, the notes will be accepted across all the government hospitals in the country. Modi, in his address, said that the decision will create momentary trouble for the general public, but its effect will be significant.

The decision has drawn mixed reactions from general public. While leaders like Rahul Gandhi, P Chidambaram, Mamta Banerjee criticised the decision, some like Bihar CM Nitish Kumar come out in support of it.

CHECK: Here’s how the new Rs 500 and Rs 2000 currency notes will look