DCCBs allowed to deposit demonetised notes with RBI

In a significant move, the government on Tuesday allowed the RBI to accept demonetised notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 received by the District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) during November 10-14 last year.

The gazette notification comes on a day when the Shiv Sena announced endorsement of NDA Presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, after the party had last week demanded that the over Rs 2,270 crore lying with the DCCBs be accepted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The notification says that the DCCBs can deposit the demonetised notes, collected during the five-day period after demonetisation was announced on November 8, 2016, with the Reserve Bank of India for 30 days from Tuesday. The DCCBs had been disallowed from accepting the notes after November 14.

It also allows banks and post offices which had collected demonetised notes prior to December 30, 2016 to deposit them with the RBI.

The deposits can be made under Specified Bank Notes (Deposits by Banks, Post Offices and District Central Cooperative Banks) Rules, 2017.

Officials said that the deposits would be taken in pursuance to an assurance given to the Supreme Court by the government that proper verification of each account would be done before any decision is taken.

Such a verification was done between January and May this year and it was found that the accounts complied with the KYC norms.

Last week, Maharashtra Minister Dilip Raote had demanded that the government should allow the RBI to accept the Rs 2,271 crore lying with the DCCBs.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's ally Shiv Sena, which had been sulking over various issues and had demanded RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat or eminent agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan be declared the presidential candidate, declared its support for the NDA candidate.

On Monday, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had slammed the move to appease caste sentiment but the party made a u-turn on Tuesday as it announced its support for Kovind.