Past Sunday Midnight, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting with top government officials to take brief on the current cash crunch in the country and to discuss what measures could be taken to normalize the situation in the coming time. The high profile meeting, which was held at the PM residence, was attended by the likes of Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Venkaiah Naidu, Piyush Goel and other top officials of RBI and Finance ministry.
Speaking to ANI, Shaktikanta Das, Economic Affairs Secretary stated that the meeting was held to brief prime minister about the current situation and the steps which are being taken in the coming time. Das also added that to extend a little more helpful gesture, the old notes will continue to be accepted at places like government hospitals, petrol stations till the midnight of 24th November. Earlier, this deadline was the midnight of November 14th.
On making note swipe easier for the queued people, EAS said that there will be separate queues for people looking to exchange their old notes and that senior citizens and divyang people will be given priority. He also added that the finance ministry has increased the daily ATM withdrawl limit to INR 2500 and that the recalibrated ATMs will be able to withdraw new INR 500 and INR 2000 rupee notes.
A special task force has also been setup to expedite the process of recalibrating the ATMs. Chaired by the deputy governor of RBI, the special task force will have representatives of banks, financial services and ministry of home affairs as constituents to expedite the whole process and getting the things back on track as soon as possible.