Demonetisation rumours that you may have taken as truth

Photo credit: @saur008

After five days of demonetisation decision, queues were not to be seen outside banks and ATMs for a day on Monday in some parts of the country.

Not because the cash crisis is over, which will anyhow persist till the end of the year- even Prime Minister Narendra Modi admitted this.

The queues vanished because banks finally have a day off in certain states, which is celebrating Guru Purnima or Kartik Purnima.

In the meanwhile, rumour mill is running overtime. Cash crisis is genuine and grave, but there are rumours that you may have believed as truth.

Here are some of them:

1.      Delhi Police received 4,500 calls informing violence outside banks and ATMs. This is not true.Delhi Police issued a clarification about the calls 

@PTI_News Please refer to our clarification explaining the factual position in detail. pic.twitter.com/ffgh9lKkMv

— Delhi Police (@DelhiPolice) November 12, 2016 

2.        Some reports also suggested that stampede took place outside banks and ATMs in Delhi, which turned out to be false.

3.    DCP’s authorisation is required for exchanging or withdrawing money from RBI counters in Delhi. People were seen rushing to DCP South Delhi. Police were forces to issue another clarification denying such reports.

Advisory pic.twitter.com/kz2IfwGZe7

— Delhi Police (@DelhiPolice) November 13, 2016

4.    Transporters to go on strike. The word is there in retail markets that in the aftermath of the demonetisation move, the transporters are going on a nation-wide strike, which will lead to acute shortage of essential goods. (One such pic is attached obtained from Google) This has been denied by the transporters association and the road transport and highways ministry.

5.    Salt scarcity in the country. All over the market place, this sentiment is very strong that the country doesn’t have enough stock of salt. The belief is that the demonetisation would lead to crashing down of salt production in coming days. The food and supplies ministry has debunked these reports but the quintessential kitchen item was sold at over Rs 200 a kg not very far from the national capital.

6.    Shopping mall looted in Delhi. A video went viral showing some people climbing the stacks in an upscale grocery shop and grabbing bags of grains, sugar etc. The rumour has it that people were desperate as they were running short on cash and hence broke into the shopping mall. Delhi Police issued a clarification saying that the disorder in the self-catering mall located in Seelampur area was due to some miscreants.

News Update pic.twitter.com/YYTYs4Zfwl

— Delhi Police (@DelhiPolice) November 12, 2016

7.    

Photo credit: @NNaseemahmad071

What a photo this !!! Unbelievable ! https://t.co/TMaPSAkqBn

— Sanjay Jha (@JhaSanjay) November 13, 2016

Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha retweeted this photograph showing humongous queues. This tweet attributed the queue to cash crisis.This photograph has subsequently been many times aggravating the panic, the public is already in. In reality, this photograph was taken in 2013 during Kenyan presidential elections.

Rumormongers @JhaSanjay and @INCIndia use a photo from 2013 Kenyan election to create panic. pic.twitter.com/UBe4y6zpQa

— Spamnath Bharti (@attomeybharti) November 13, 2016

8.    (Three deaths (reported numbers have gone up now were reported due to rush for cash after demonetisation. In two of the cases, family members later clarified that the deaths were not linked to cash crisis. In Mulund, Mumbai the 73-year-old suffered from health complications, his family members were reported as saying. In another case, a woman jumped to death and it was attributed to cash crisis. But, the family members did not later link it to rush for cash. )