PANAJI
The Chief Electoral Office (CEO) Goa has been instructed not to provide any indelible ink to the banks in the State.
The instructions have been issued from the Election Commission of India in the wake of banks using indelible ink on fingers of people who come to exchange old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.
Speaking to mediapersons, CEO Kunal said, “Commission has given us instructions that we should not provide any indelible ink from our stock.”
Questioned over apprehensions of malpractices during elections due to indelible ink, Kunal said, “This ink is manufactured by the public sector undertaking, Mysore Paints and Varnish Limited. Each and every product is inventorised. But as far as our elections are concerned, we don’t feel any misuse will happen as these inks have their shelf life. Even if it is applied, it will last upto some time. Once elections are announced, we will check if there is over supply so that there should not be any misuse of it,” he said.
Meanwhile, a few banks in the State were seen using indelible ink on the fingers of people coming to exchange notes.
A manager of a public sector bank in Panaji said, “Yes, we are using indelible ink. The idea is to put this ink on the finger of the person exchanging old currency notes so that he or she can exchange notes only once between November 10 and December 30.”
But, to a question on what will be done if a person has more currency notes, the manager replied, “Anyway, there is no limit on depositing old notes in your bank account.”
This seems to be a move by the government to ensure that more currency notes get deposited in banks and therefore become part of the financial system. However, on the flip side, it also puts a limit on exchanging old notes only once and while the exchange allows you to go to any bank, for deposit you will have to go to the bank with which you have an account.
Sources, however, revealed that more ink should be available next week. The banks are likely to get more ink from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) office. Meanwhile, it is also informed that Indian Banks Association (IBA) is also supposed to be co-ordinating for banks so that they get indelible ink.
