Mysuru: After Union government’s decision to ban old notes of higher denomination, tribal people in the district have been deprived of their daily wages and are found starving often. Inorder to survive in difficult conditions, many have resorted to fishing in the nearby lakes.
Most tribal people used to work in nearby coffee estates to eke a living. They used to go in the morning and return in the evening and spend their daily earrings in buying few food items and spend the rest on liquor. After the note ban, estate owners are not giving salaries in cash and in few cases offering old currency notes. Unfortunately, shops do not accept the old notes and hence most tribal people have stopped working.
There are many tribal hamlets in and around Periyapatna and most of them are seen fishing in lakes. If they fail to get fish then they go on the lookout for few root vegetables which they can boil and eat.
Most tribal people do not have bank accounts in their name. They never attempted to open Jan Dhan accounts and hence are deprived of all benefits in this situation where cash is hard to come by with no balance in individual accounts.
Now few tribal youth are urging bank staff to open individual accounts.
A list of tribal people is getting prepared to open new bank accounts, says Mohan, Secretary of a nearby Gram Panchayath.
