Udhagamandalam: Focus on the demonetization front shifted to the prevention of misuse of accounts in various banks particularly the State Bank of India here.

Enquiries made by The Covai Post on Tuesday revealed that accounts with almost nil balance which had remained dormant for long had suddenly become active.

In many cases the account holders,mostly farm hands and casual labourers,were joining queues early in the morning to deposit varying sums of money upto Rs.49,000.Later in the afternoon the same persons were among those waiting to withdraw money.

An officer of the State Bank of India said, “In over two decades of service in the branch I have not seen many of those who were turning up now to deposit or withdraw money”. In order to regulate the crowd the number of security personnel has been increased. Arrangements have been made to mark the fingers of those withdrawing money with indelible ink.

An observer said that the labourers got over three times their daily wage for standing in the queue and helping their employers deposit their unaccounted money.