Sabarimala issue: Won’t accept damaged notes, informs bank; last year’s kanikka still remains to be counted

SABARIMALA: Dhanalaxmi Bank said that the damaged currency notes worth lakhs received from bhandaram in Sabarimala cannot be replaced.

About Rs 1 lakh of damaged notes received during counting yesterday were brought to the bank branch in Sannidhanam. There are also other damaged notes worth lakhs like this.

The bank rejected the notes as they were stained and numbers were faded and decayed. The bank's stance is that it cannot provide the actual value as per RBI norms. The board is now trying to clean the stained and dirty notes using soap.

The counting has been speeded up since yesterday. It is led by a special officer and 15 assistants.

Kerala Kaumudi had reported yesterday that currency notes worth lakhs received as kannikka were damaged as they were left uncounted. The kanikka offerings of last pilgrimage season were also inside the bhandaram.

The Devaswom vigilance officers said that they had informed about this to the Executive officer several times but they didn’t take this matter into consideration. They had also submitted a report to the board demanding action against former treasury special officer Jayakumar. the counting of notes progressed after Jayakumar’s transfer.

Notes of Rs 100 to Rs 2000 were only counted. The small notes are yet to be counted. 100 to 150 sacks of money were received as kanikka every day. The shortage of experienced staff has led to these issues.