It is a problem of plenty for the banks and the currency chests, which stores currency notes and coins on behalf of the Reserve Bank. With people depositing demonetised ₹500 and ₹1,000 currency notes in crores, the bank branches and these currency chests have started overflowing with no room for further storage.
Sources in banking circles confirmed that the Reserve Bank of India is set to start the process of mobilising the demonetised currency notes from the currency chests to the regional RBI headquarters.
"The currency chests are bursting with loads of demonetised cash bundles. There is no further room to store any more currency. In last 10 days there has been no move to transfer this cash to RBI. Now, from November 22, we are told RBI will start mobilising this demonetised cash to its regional headquarters," said a Chief General Manager of a public sector bank in Ahmedabad.
According to the RBI guidelines, the remittance from the currency chests to the RBI has to be made through the prescribed procedures, which include counting, sorting, packaging and verification for fake notes.
The bank officials claimed that there was no space to store any more currency notes. "After this remittance to the RBI from today onwards, there will be extra space in chests to store new notes," the official stated.
Meanwhile, the process of movement of the demonetised notes is seen as a mammoth task to be take up by the RBI. According to banking circle sources, unprecedented security arrangements have been made with extra force deployment.
"Wherever the movement is through road transport, the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) will guard the cash, while the Railway Protection Force (RPF) will be deployed for rail movement of cash," informed sources said.