Today onwards 500 and 100 rupee notes have beem withdrawn. THe order came into effect from yesterday midnight and was issued only yesterday evening after 7pm.

It was so sudden that all transactions have been limited in cash to 100,50,20,10,5,2 and 1 rupee notes/coins.

Talked to my neighbours and the opinions and reactions got are enumerated below.

My servant maid told , she does not understand what is being talked , but she has one 500 rupee note for expenses and wanted to know how to change it. WE told her to buy things from the nearby shop on account and give money by month end after changing the 500 rupee note with a new one from the bank.

Then my neighbour eas telling about the issued faced by him. He normally pays electicity bill, cable, internet dues etc by cash. The due date is tomorrow and all ATMs are closed for two days. we suggested to pay all the bills from now on by online transaction. He informed that he does not have online account links from any banks. We suggested that after the banks open , he can get the online access and for now , he can use our bank links to make the payment and pay us the amount in 500 rupee notes which we can deposit in the bank.

Then another neighbour whose daughter's marriage is tomorrow was wondering what he can do regarding payments due to the caterers , marriage hall , decorators, the electricity bill , flower arrangement, the music troupe etc. We suggested to ask them for permission to transfer money online or give the payment by cheque.

Then another neighbour was mentioning about paying iron wallahs for clothes ironing . then we suggested that we can pay him in advance by turns and the others can pay by the end of the month .This seems to be a good start to avoid using cash as much as possible and get used to the online payment mode.

THEn the discussion turned towards getting the new notes by exchanging the old notes in the bank after few days. Since the crowd will be too much and a lot of time has to be spent in the bank, we decided to give authorisation to a few of us among the 30 to 40 neighbours , who can by turn stand in queue and get the notes exchanged.

Then the discussion turned towards identification of the duplicate notes and one of the members in the meeting opened his laptop and showed the video demonstrating the differences between the original notes and the duplicate notes.

Since almost all the 40 members were present, one member suggested that we can buy vegetables fruits and provisions in bulk so that we can get them at wholesale price and we can bring them from the faroff places by vcan and we can share the transport expenses and also we can get good quality products at bargain prices and it will benefit all. Some members volunteered to take up the responsibility of hiring the van and planning the trips.
Then one member raised the very pertinent issue of disposal of waste . It was unanimously agreed to segregate the waste at each house level and collect the disposable organic,recyclable , plastic , electronic etc categories of waste and dispose them together so that we can also get good returns from the waste ; the country also will be benefited along with us in that the environmental pollution is reduced and also those who are earning money from waste management can benefit by the single point of collection.
thus the meeting which started for the purpose of discussing about note change and its effects, culminated in discussing various other issues linked to all members.

Hope this article is useful and a good read.

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good read