JOIN USA man waiting in a queue to draw money from an ATM, died in Najafgarh area here on Monday even as people complained about hardships and losses suffered while trying to get legal tender.
Politics over demonetisation got hotter in the capital as Satish Kumar, 49, a resident of Uttam Nagar, died around 3 pm while waiting in a queue outside Oriental Bank of Commerce.
Kumar had gone to the bank’s branch to withdraw cash from the ATM. However, he fainted while standing in the long queue and was rushed to Mata Chanan Devi hospital, where he was declared brought dead.
His body has been sent for post-mortem. Political party representatives rushed to show solidarity with the family of Kumar, who worked in the vegetable market at Kesheopur and was in financial trouble due to business woes.
On Monday, queues formed outside banks much before they opened after a weekend break. The rush was more at banks where indelible ink was not applied.
Both, the Congress and the AAP parties, slammed the Centre for poor implementation of the demonetisation exercise. The AAP has planned a march to Parliament on Tuesday to press for rollback of demonetisation, under the leadership of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is busy holding rallies in Punjab against what he dubbed as Centre’s “anti-poor” move.
ATMs in central Delhi and in some colonies have started dispensing the new Rs 500 notes. But ATMs dispensing only Rs 2000 notes left users worried about finding change for the high value notes.
“I keep scanning the social media for updates on which ATM near my house in Saket is dispensing which denomination currency notes,” said Ayush, a law professional.
AAP national spokesperson and senior leader Ashish Khetan, at a press conference, charged that the main purpose of demonetisation was to give the BJP the sole control over black money so that it could convert it and use it in the upcoming state Assembly elections.