District administration alerted about labourers being used for currency exchange in Gurgaon

Bankers in Gurgaon have raised concerns before the district administration that labourers are being used by residents for currency exchange.

Bankers in Gurgaon have raised concerns before the district administration that labourers are being used by residents for currency exchange. The central bank has set an upper limit of ₹4,000 per person for exchange of old currency at banks and post offices till November 24.

Bank officials bring cash in new denominations to a bank branch in Sector 14 on Sunday. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

Bankers said, though there is no provision to deny anyone currency exchange within legal formalities, the administration should take some measures to stop the practice.

Lead district manager -- an interface between banks and district administration -- RC Nayak alerted the district administration on Sunday about the practice on the basis of feedback from various banks.

There are about 5 lakh labourers in the city and majority of them depend on liquid currency for daily needs. “We have got inputs that some residents are sending labourers to various banks to exchanging notes. Labourers are made to use their identity documents for the exchange,” a manager with a nationalised bank in Sector 14 said.

Gurgaon deputy commissioner TL Satyaprakash said no specific incident of labourers being used for currency exchange had been reported. “No such incidents. We are closely monitoring the behaviour of the public,” he said.

According to the Reserve Bank of India guidelines, anyone can get currency exchanged after proper formalities. The banks are seeking aadhaar and PAN details during currency exchange to track instances of repeated currency exchange.

“There is no such provision in driving licence, voter card or other government identity documents. These documents can be used multiple times in separate bank branches,” a cashier at a bank in Sector 31 market said.

People waiting in queues to exchange cash currency said some of the banks were not operating beyond the normal working hours. Bank officials, however, said there were no directives for banks to operate beyond office hours and some banks were operating overtime on their own.