Bhubaneswar, Nov 10: Taking note of the panic by the people due to the sudden announcement by the Centre on demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes on Tuesday night, the Odisha government has decided to step up early measures to bring the situation under control.
Director General of Police (DGP) KB Singh said that he has received a call from the Union Home secretary in this regard. Due to demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes long queues of customers are expected in the banks, ATM counters, filling stations, hospitals and other places. Keeping this in view, all district Superintendents of Police have been instructed to provide necessary security and control the rush of customers in these places. In such situations, the duty of the police will be to manage the crowd. He also informed that the police will also provide security to the people who come to exchange money. He said he has spoken to the General Manager, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Bhubaneswar, Prasad Das and senior officials of all nationalised banks in this regard.
Chief Secretary, Aditya Prasad Padhi informed media that he had a discussion through video conference with all the district collectors and SPs yesterday evening regarding sorting out the situation. Principal Secretary, Finance, Tuhinkant Pande had a meeting presided over by the chief secretary to discuss technical issues relating to demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes following which the videoconference was conducted. He, however, said the people should not panic by the demonetisation of the aforesaid currencies as the Government of India had made it clear that the people can exchange their old currency with the new one in the banks from today.
