To ease the shortage of change,the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) organised a coin-cum new note mela at the Sector 22 market on Tuesday. Bags containing notes and coins in denominations of Rs 5 and 10 were handed the people in exchange for currency notes. A minimum of Rs 5,000 was necessary to avail of the coin bags or the new Rs 10 notes. This is the second time the RBI has organised this mela in the city. Following proposals by various market associations to provide them with coins and new notes,the RBI took the initiative to distribute coins and new Rs 10 notes to the traders in return for currency notes. P K Lamba,Treasurer of RBI (Chandigarh),said,The traders in the market face a lot of problem while giving change to customers because there is a shortage of currency. This was the reason we began with this process. In a day,we try to cover up to three sectors. We have already opened 12 dedicated counters in the city where people can get currency exchanged for coins in any denominations. The coin-cum new notes mela lasted for four hours where coins and currency notes amounting to around Rs 55 lakh were exchanged. As many as 120 traders from Sector 20,21 and 22 thronged the market to avail of the opportunity. Sanjay Bhatia,Deputy General Manager of RBI (Chandigarh),said,To overcome the shortage of the currency notes,especially in the markets,we have introduced this process. Increase in circulation of coins will help prevent counterfeiting of currency. We are working to expand this process in the whole city and then to Mohali and Panchkula.
