Banned Notes: Holders Of Overseas Indian Citizen Cards Express Concern

Bengaluru: Many PIOs or persons of Indian Origin and OCIs or Overseas Citizens of India were under the impression that they could exchange their old currency until the end of March. But they were in for a shock when they realised that only NRIs were allowed to do so.

Anuradha Shukla lives in Germany and visits her parents in Bengaluru every year. The German citizen, who holds an Overseas Citizen of India card (OCI), is a doctor who works to translate medical documents from German to English. Her husband works at the Siemens headquarters in Erlangen, Germany. She came to India earlier this month - and declared her old 1000 and 500 rupee notes at the airport - under the impression she could change them while she was here.

She told NDTV, "We change Euros to rupees every year when we are here in India and you always have something left behind. When you change it back to Euros you always lose money in currency so I keep it aside because I am going to come back the next year. I have 22000 Indian rupees in the demonetised currency... We got to know that Indians who were abroad during this time could change their currency even up to the 31st of March. For me PIOs and OCI card holders also came under NRIs under the larger term. There was nothing specifically mentioned that PIOs and OCI card holders could not change currency after the 30th of December."

Anuradha is one amongst thousands of people that are realising that their old notes are worthless and cannot be exchanged anymore. Anuradha had even booked a ticket to Chennai to exchange her notes.

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Even for NRIs, the RBI counters are not accepting the old notes everywhere but only in selective cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Nagpur.

 "I was disappointed that I needed to travel to Chennai to change my currency, but I said, okay, I'll do it. So I booked my tickets to Chennai, my accommodations, only to realise about 2 or 3 days later that PIOs and OCI card holders are denied currency exchange altogether. I feel let down because I don't even feel considered as a citizen of India. I have connections to India. I travel to India every year.  I am trying to reach out to the government of India to find a solution to this and to be fair to us. I am hoping that they will hear our voices."

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