People face inconvenience after scrapping of Rs 500/1000 notes

The impact of government withdrawing Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes from circulation was visible across Delhi with people facing inconvenience in buying milk, vegetables, medicines and other daily essentials and in commuting in auto-rickshaws and taxis.
There was chaos outside outlets of Mother Dairy, Safal and some other government-run cooperatives besides state-run hospitals, railway stations and petrol pumps which were allowed to accept Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes till Friday.
As ATMs and banks were closed today, harried people explored various options to get smaller denominations notes such as Rs 100 and Rs 50 which were in short supply due to the heavy demand.

While there has been unnecessary panic among certain sections, small traders, rickshaw pullers, taxi and auto-rickshaw drivers said they have been hit hard due to "shortage" of smaller denomination notes as well as anxiety among people. Last night, long queues were seen outside ATMs to get Rs 100 notes.
While passengers faced inconvenience at metro stations in the morning hours as notices were pasted regarding Government's decision on currency, later it was announced that old-high denomination notes will be accepted at metro stations till Saturday.
Long queues were witnessed at petrol pumps as well but in most filling stations, people were asked to buy fuel in multiples of Rs 500 or Rs 1000 due to short of cash in smaller denominations.

"I got petrol filled for Rs 1300 but they refused to return me Rs 200. When I argued they asked me to give change of Rs 300," said Sonakshi Bhalla, a Gurgaon resident who commutes to Noida for work.

Chiranjeevi Arora, an IT professional, claimed, "The metro people refused to accept Rs 500 notes even after the government announced that DMRC should accept them."
These include government hospitals, pharmacies in
government hospitals, railway ticketing counters, ticket counters of public transport, airline ticketing counters at airports, milk booths, cremetoria/burial grounds, petrol pumps and gas stations.
The situation outside grocery stores was similar in most of the areas across Delhi as people having Rs 500 and Rs 1000 could not buy essential commodities while those at Safal and Mother Dairy outlets also had at difficult time.

"For benefit of consumers we have increased the circulation of SBI cash cards specifically meant for Safal and Mother Dairy stores. At the same time, we are also pushing for acceptance of payments through PayTM," Mother Dairy Managing Director S Nagarajan said.
A section of people travelling by auto-rickshaw and taxis were also finding it difficult to commute.
"We can't give Rs 500 to an autowallah if we have to pay Rs 320 and we don't have change. Some auto drivers are not taking saying the note is just a paper now," said Bhagyashree Nanda, a housewife.
Ridhima Sebastian, a nurse in a Gurgaon hospital, said, "The problem is not that we don't have money. The problem is we have it but we still can't use it. The ATMs are closed and even after two days the limit is Rs 2000. How can an entire family survive on that?"

But the people using credit cards and other online payment platforms to pay fares were not having any difficulty.
As smaller denomination notes were in high demand, internet-savvy people were also preferring to order groceries and vegetables through popular online portals.
Heavy rush was seen at chemist shops in government hospitals which have been allowed to accept the higher denomination currency notes.