Thiruvananthapuram: Three weeks after India’s announcement of the demonetisation of higher-value currencies, queues have slightly eased at bank counters in Kerala, but fresh queues are beginning at the state’s toll plazas.
Toll collection had been suspended owing to currency shortage for the past few days, but when toll collection recommenced on Saturday, lengthy queues formed owing to shortage of change.
At Paliekkara in Thrissur and Kumbalam in Kochi, vehicles lined up at the toll centres as the employees at the centre struggled to provide change for road users who gave the newly-introduced Rs2,000 (Dh108) note. For most vehicles, except heavy vehicles, a one-way toll costs less than Rs100.
Facilities were readied for customers to pay through credit and debit cards, but that did little to ease the vehicle pile-up.
Meanwhile, state Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala criticised the state government’s handling of the currency crisis.
Chennithala said the government should have foreseen the crisis in distributing salaries to government staff and should have drawn up a relief package. He said the state finance minister, T.M. Thomas Isaac was merely “holding a road show” instead of attempting to resolve the currency shortage crisis.
Salary-earners and pensioners have been struggling to withdraw their salary and pensions from treasury offices and banks ever since their monthly dues were remitted to their accounts on December 1.
Chennithala said the governments of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh states had foreseen the difficulty in making salary payments and approached the Reserve Bank of India in advance.
He also alleged that rice distribution in the state through the public distribution system had come to a complete standstill.
“If the Narendra Modi government is accused of withdrawing currency, the Pinarayi Vijayan government in Kerala has withdrawn rice distribution”, he said.
He said the ration system in the state had collapsed and that even those below the poverty line were not being distributed their provisions through the public distribution system.
