Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Mar 22: Despite the fact that 50 paisa coin continues to be the lowest denomination in the country, people of the State are quite upset as 50 paisa coins are not accepted by the shopkeepers or the transporters.
A section of the locals opine that there is a mafia working behind the disappearance of 50 paisa coins in the State from last one year. “The coins immediately disappeared after the Transport Department made a hike in the passenger fares recently,” said Shafiq Hussain, a local shopkeeper.
He said the fare of Rs. 4.50, Rs. 6.50, Rs. 7.50 and Rs. 8.50 for varying distances on different routes has been designed to benefit 50 paisa to transporters from every passenger. The non-availability of 50 paisa coins has sent the commuters in tizzy as they are being fleeced by the transporters.
“When the Government was about to make a hike in the passenger fares, we informed them that they should not include the 50 paisa in the new fares as the coins are missing from the market. But, they didn’t listen to us and went ahead with the new fares,” Ghulam Mohammad, a local driver said.
According to the figures of the Transport Department, over 8,604 Tata Buses (Mini Buses) run in the Kashmir valley on daily basis. Among them 3380 min-buses ply on the roads of Srinagar city alone. The commuters say that the conductors of the public transport vehicles never pay back the 50 paisa coin.
Pertinently, in July 2011, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in a public notice said that the 25 paisa will no longer be accepted as a legal tender anywhere. The RBI defined the 50 paisa coins as the lowest denominations in the country.
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