Small investors did not rush to sell their units on the first day of US-64 redemptions with hardly any queues at the Unit Trust of India counters here. The management, however, was out in full strength to meet any contingency and assuage the feelings of the irate investors. In the morning, there were more reporters covering the event than investors coming for redemptions! Instead of picking up redemption forms, the investors were busy talking to newsmen and being interviewed by TV channels.
Even those investors who had come to the UTI offices were not keen on redeeming the units. Some of them even went back without asking for redemption forms. It would take about ten working days to get the money after one fills in the form. Some of the unit holders wanted to wait for the dividend next year before taking a decision while most of them said they had lost faith in UTI and the government.
And yet there is no urge to go in for redemptions as there are not many alternative investment options.
Said Dipchand Javeri, a senior citizen who had purchased the units at Rs 10 in 1991,
