By Our Reporter
Shillong: Owing to complaints of shortage of coins by the general public, the United Bank of India on Wednesday organised a 5-hour coin distribution Mela at the Shillong Branch premises.
On this day, the bank distributed an amount of Rs 3.75 lakh among 558 general public and business community.
Seeing the overwhelming response from the public, the bank intends to conduct this type of coin distribution Mela at least once a month subject to the availability of coins.
There have been complaints about the shortage of coins from the general public and sadly, various authorities including the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have refused to recognize this problem.
The RBI Deputy Governor KC Chakrabarty during his recent visit to the city said that it would be incorrect to say there is a shortage of coins in the market.
“There has never been any discrepancy in issuing the coins as far as the RBI is concerned,” he said while adding that the actual problem lay in the distribution of the coins.
The RBI has identified “distribution” and “delivery” as the constraints leading to shortage of coins and currency notes across markets in the country. Recently, The Committee, which Chakrabarty heads, submitted the report and recommendation to the Government mentioning in detail the measures to be taken by banks and governments to act upon in order to tackle the menace.
The RBI official said accumulation of coins by individuals as one of the major reasons affecting the distributiont of coins in the region.