Confusion, chaos, tiffs as Mumbai queues up to exchange cash

People queue up outside Bank of Baroda near Rajmata Wadapav Centre in Thane West this morning PicSameerMarkandeAs banks across the city opened for business a day after Narendra Modirsquos demonitisation announcement panicking customers queued up to withdraw cash Some of them had been waiting since early morning while others had taken time out from work to wrap up the task Most staff seemed geared to tackle the chaos as banks had called in additional human resourceAs banks opened their gates this morning Mumbaikars raced to get their notes exchanged Despite deploying extra hands for the big day the chaos kept bank employees on their toes People are panicking and are frustrated as itrsquos a matter of money We have to still keep our calm and be efficient in this as one mistake from our end could jeopardise the customerrsquos money Everything happened so suddenly said Aparna Dalvi from the Saraswat Bank who was transferred from the Forex department especially for todayQueuing up since 5amPeople have been queuing up since 5 am Heena Sharma who was standing in the queue said We are working middleclass people who have to rush to office in the morning I have left everything and come here Yes we support the government but suddenly something like this is making our lives difficultAshwini Gokhale and her son Nishant wait outside a bank to exchange notesWhile people rushed and employees ran around the bank premises the branch manager of State Bank of India Shivshankar Parashar said ldquoI know there is a lot of inconvenience but Irsquom enjoying it The chaos and confusion will be there for a day or two What happens in the big picture is what makes all of this worth itrdquoToo many formalitiesThe limit for exchange of currency was Rs 4000 but customers are allowed to withdraw a maximum of R10000 a day the limit for the week is Rs 20000 As part of the Know Your Customer KYC banks have been asking for photocopies of ID proof and people who came as early as 8830 am couldnrsquot find one at that point and got into argumentsUnion Bank and State Bank of India however did not have money to exchange One of the employees said ldquoThe cash hasnrsquot come yet It will come after November 11 or even later we dont knowrdquoLong waitShashikant Lad a resident of Dahisar left his home early to go his bank at Bandra E He reached the bank by 9am I was third in the queue but had to leave as each person was taking 2025 minutes The banks were asking for a photocopy of Aadhaar card as proofrdquo said Lad He left as was getting late for work For the time being they were not exchanging the Rs 500 denomination notesSome customers were seen queuing up since early morning in the hope of withdrawing cash and making a dash for work PicSameer MarkandeThere were banks such as ICICI in Thane district that were distributing water to people standing in serpentine queuesVijay Kiswe BEST bus conductor and resident of Navi Mumbai was standing in a queue outside IDBI bank for more than an hour He said I am suffering from tuberculosis and need cash for any emergency So last month I withdrew Rs 40000 Now I need the cash exchangedRaghu Babu Gangolu a resident of Vijaywada in Andhra Pradesh who came by road said On Thursday morning I reached Mumbai with my wife for her interview No guest house was available for us on the way as they were not accepting R500 or R1000 We reached Mumbai without having dinner and breakfast as we only had R500 and R1000 notes