Coimbatore: 79-year-old seeks exchange of demonetised currency

COIMBATORE: Almost nine years after the Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currencies were demonetised, an elderly woman sought the help of the District Administration authorities in Coimbatore to exchange the demonetised currency of Rs 15,000 in her possession.

Seventy-nine-year-old Thangamani from Uppilipalayam discovered the demonetised notes in the denomination of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 while cleaning the house.

“My husband died in 1995, and my only son, who was working as a driver in Karnataka, also passed away a few years ago due to cardiac arrest. I am, therefore, living alone by eking out a living with the financial aid given by the government. It was recently, while cleaning the house, that I discovered the demonetised notes kept in a bag by my son,” she said to the media.

As the currency notes could not be used, the septuagenarian sought the intervention of the district administration to help her exchange them for original currency. She claimed to have petitioned the authorities twice before.

On receiving the petition, District Collector Pavankumar G Giriyappanavar assured to do the needful. Demonetization was implemented on November 8, 2016, when Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes were scrapped from circulation.