Rs 500, Rs 1,000 banned: Serpentine queues at petrol pumps, ATMs in Punjab, Haryana

Chandigarh: Serpentine queues were witnessed on Friday night at ATMs and petrol pumps across Punjab and Haryana, including in Chandigarh, barely an hour after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes with effect from Friday night. In Chandigarh, there were long queues at most of the petrol pumps. [caption id=“attachment_3096054” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] People crowd at a petrol pump to fill petrol as the Prime minister ordered to ban 500 and 1000 rupees notes. PTI[/caption] Despite the prime minister, in his televised address to the nation, making it clear that people holding currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 can deposit the same in their bank and post office accounts from 10 November to 30 December, people rushed to ATMs and petrol pumps. “I thought everyone was stocking up. So, I too followed suit. I will fill up my car’s fuel tank which will also help me dispose of some of the Rs 1,000 currency notes. I thought I could also get some currency notes of lower denominations in change which will be of help in the present scenario,” said Baldev Chand while waiting in a long queue at a petrol pump here. Similar scenes were witnessed at many petrol pumps of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Ambala, Gurgaon, Faridabad and other towns in the two states. People also rushed to ATMs to withdraw currency notes of lower denominations, while some said they were queueing up to deposit the Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes in the cash deposit machines.