Puri: It seems that people have now found a way to get rid of old scrapped notes of Rs 500 and 1,000 denominations which continue to be recovered from several sacred shrines across the country.
The Puri Jagannath Temple administration here is also now in a fix as the banned notes continue to be recovered from several hundis (donation boxes) even months after the demonitisation drive.
Devotees are still dropping the demonetised notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 in donation boxes which are opened at regular intervals at Puri temple.
According to reports, so far scrapped currency notes worth over 12 lakh were recovered from several donation boxes of the temple after the demonitisation drive.
However, the temple has received Rs 3 lakh in old 500 and 1,000 notes from July 10 to July 20 which has now emerged as a major concern for the temple administration.
“We have again written a letter to RBI for considering our case. Till we get further instructions, we have decided to keep the old currency in safe custody as it is now temple fund,” said Administration (Niti) Maheswar Panigrahy.
Panigrahy further informed that such old notes worth Rs 3,000 to 5,000 are being dumped in donation boxes almost on a daily basis. “As it is not possible to keep a tab on such deposit or donation in old currency, we request devotees to deposit legal tender in donation boxes,” he said.
It is worth mentioning that Government of India had scrapped old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 on November 8, 2016 while the same demonetised currency was allowed to be deposited in banks till December 30th, 2016.
The deadline for deposit of old notes by Indians who are abroad ended on March 31st, 2017.