Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's latest surgical strike on black money holders has received widespread appreciation, the bank employees' association has given a thumbs-down to the move for creating confusion and panic among the public.
Reacting to the government's decision to demonetise 500 and 1000 rupee bills, the MahaGujarat Bank Employees' Association, an affiliate to the All India Bank Employees' Association, said the measure is not sufficient to tackle the black money menace.
"Everyone knows that black money is mostly in foreign currency, in foreign banks, in gold or in properties and less in cash. Hence, this steps alone is not going to help in unearthing black money," said Janak Rawal, General Secretary of the Association.
Raising concerns about the preparedness of the banks for the change of currency in circulation, Rawal stated that 500 and 1,000 bills have become common in daily usage and an overnight change of currency notes at about 85,000 bank branches of commercial banks and about another 1,00,000 branches of co-operative banks besides about 1,02,000 ATMs across the country will be a mammoth task, not possible to execute within 24-48 hours.
"RBI has issued the circular to banks to extend the working hours, but has kept silent on overtime issue. This will create unrest among employees. So many branches of banks have only two or three cash counters, few cash counting machines, UV Lamps, note sorting machines, and machines for detecting counterfeit notes. It will put undue pressure on the bank staff for the next few days," he said, adding that the announcement made in this fashion may not serve the purpose for which it is intended.