Demonetisation Fallout: Cashless Villagers Loot PDS Shop in MP's Chhatarpur Village

Bhopal: Cashless villagers in Madhya Pradesh's Bardua village looted a public distribution system shop (PDS) after its owner refused them to accept the now-defunct Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currencies for groceries on Friday, sources told CNN-News18.

A group of villagers turned up at the shop to buy food grains and an altercation ensued between them and shop owner Munnilal Ahirwar after the later refused to accept the currencies, police said. Following the verbal battle with Ahirwar, angry villagers barged into the PDS shop and looted sacks of wheat, rice and sugar, the police added.

Madhya Pradesh (11/11/16): Locals robbed ration shop in Chattarpur after owners refused to give ration pic.twitter.com/7HxvTmTDKs

— ANI (@ANI_news) November 12, 2016

While Ahirwar blamed village sarchpanch Nonhelal Patel for the incident, Patel alleged that Ahirwar had been misappropriating rations for long time.

Banks and ATMs in the country witnessed more chaos and even longer queues on Friday and Saturday as cash-starved people jostled to exchange and withdraw money after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced ban on Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes on Tuesday night.

ATMs too went dry soon after they were stocked due to heavy rush.

Long serpentine queues were witnessed at bank branches for the third straight day (on Saturday) across the country. Similarly, people were seen impatiently waiting outside ATMs to withdraw money.