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Currency Crisis: 2,000 Coins of Re 1 & Six Other Distress Stories

In the aftermath of the currency ban, we curate some stories of pain and distress that the common man is facing.

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Outside banks and ATMs, there are many aam aadmis standing in queues to exchange their old notes ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the demonetisation of Rs 500 and 1,000 notes.

Amidst this atmosphere of panic and chaos, there are stories of distress making the news across the country.

Here are some of them:

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1. UP Woman With Cancer-Afflicted Son Receives Rs 2,000 in Re 1 Coins

For Sarju Devi in Lucknow, life has been a series of setbacks for the past few days. The 60 year-old woman has lost her husband and her son has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

To top all this, what happened with her a day ago has left her crestfallen. When she went to a bank to get her Rs 2,000 exchanged, she was left in tears when she was handed over a bag of Re 1 coins.

“Is it justified? After spending hours in queues to get my own money, I am being paid in one rupee coins. The bag weighs around 17 kg and I couldn’t even carry it home,” Sarju Devi said.

2. Cashless Ghaziabad Farmer Tries to Set Self Ablaze

Ram Mehar Singh Yadav has been unable to visit a doctor as he has been rendered cashless since the demonetisation policy came into force. Dejected and furious, Yadav tried to set himself on fire at a branch of a bank in Ghaziabad's Muradnagar.

Although his attempts were thwarted by others standing standing outside the bank, Yadav’s pain cannot be ignored.

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3. Woes of a Pregnant Woman in a Cashless Family

“If I go into labour now, my husband will have no money for any emergency,” Salma, a resident of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Camp laments.

Salma, who is in her ninth month of pregnancy, said that her husband is a daily wage worker and hasn’t been able to sent any money because his contractor has not paid him yet.

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4. Children Unable to Attend Their Father's Last Rites

Kokkila Karavayya (52) passed away at Tekkalipatnam in Andhra Pradesh’s Srikakulam district.

Following his death, his wife Narayanamma sent a message to their son Appalaswamy and two daughters, Uma and Saraswathi, asking them to come home to perform the last rites.

The three children being construction labourers in Hyderabad didn’t have Rs 100 notes. Due to this, they asked their mother to perform the last rites.

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5. ‘Autowallahs Won’t Take us, Buses Force Us Out’

Vinod Sahani, a migrant worker, was forced out of a bus on Wednesday because his colleague did not have smaller denomination notes.

“Autowallahs won’t take us and buses just forced us out,” he said. With no one willing to take their Rs 500 note, Sahani and his colleague had no option but to walk 7 km in Bengaluru.

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6. Students Barred From Exams For Failing to Pay Fees

Despite parents complaining of a cash crunch due to demonetisation, a government- aided school in Salem, Tamil Nadu, allegedly did not allow students who failed to pay their fees to sit for the mid-term exams.

Little Flower Higher Secondary School did not allow its students, including Class 10 and Class 12 students, to write their exams.

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7. ‘I’ve Been Standing Here Since Midnight’: A Rickshaw-Puller’s Story

Zahid Azam received a call from his wife informing him that their infant daughter is severely ill and does not have enough cash for treatment.

Azam, a rickshaw-puller in Delhi, has been unable to send any money home in Kishanganj, Bihar, since the demonetisation policy was announced on 8 November. “There has been drastic fall in commuters. I have been standing here since midnight,” he said.

Source: The Times of India

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