An apparent solution to ‘chillar nahi hai saab’

Shops at Himayat Nagar and Ram Nagar have currencies of their own

While bus conductors and railways struggle to produce change, wine shops and mediocre stores in Himayat Nagar and Ram Nagar have started currencies of their own. Call it coupons or not, these carry a similar visage of an actual currency note which gallantly proclaims; I promise to pay the bearer a sum of… And to prevent counterfeit, they also have bar codes and signature of the main shop vendor who seems to replicate the governor for RBI

The phrase “Change nahi hai boss” has always been a pertinent one in the city. Be it railway stations, buses, shops or autos. But of late, railway stations in the city, namely Secunderabad and Kacheguda, have taken it up a notch. For example, if a person goes up to buy a platform ticket which is worth Rs 5 and he shows up with a Rs 10 note, he is either given two tickets or asked to move out of line.

In the case of buses, it has become an age-old practice where the conductor would scribble down the remainder of the change that has to be tendered to a person, after which it is the passengers’ responsibility to duly collect the change from him. If he fails to do so, the exchange of money is long forgotten and there is no scope of retrieval. Padmakar, general secretary, APSRTC Employees' Union, says, “Currently the conductors are given Rs 150 in change which constitutes denominations of Rs 1, 2 and 5. But this hardly lasts for the day’s first few trips. We have been pressurising the authorities to push for Rs 200 to be given in change, so that by the time the first few trips are made, the conductors can garner enough coins to hold up for the rest of the day. By doing so, they will prevent the conductors from being hassled for change and also put the passenger through a problem-free journey.”

Autos too seem to go through a similar phase where-in they stop in multiple stops trying to get some change. If that is not possible, they ultimately end up at a petrol bunk where they hustle for change. With all this going on, many wine shops across the city especially in Ram Nagar and Himayath Nagar came up with a novel way of tackling the change problem. They have introduced a new coupon system wherein, if one buys an item worth Rs 45 and produces a Rs 50 note, he is handed a Rs 5 coupon which also accompanies the shop’s name along with a signature. This coupon can then be exchanged in any shop in the vicinity for any small trinket or snack to go along with the drink.

One such shop owner said, “We introduced this system to tackle the no-change menace. Usually, we give our customers a coupon and ask them to redeem it in the pan shop abutting the area or in the bakery across the street. And after the day’s business is done, the pan-shop and the bakery owners come to us with all the coupons and we pay them the same amount in cash. It is a mutual understanding.”

To prevent duplication of these coupons, they have also introduced a bar-code, so that it will be difficult to counterfeit.

But it must be noted that in the country, it is only the rupee which bears the authority to be exchanged for any service or product. But with lack of coins in the city, novel ideas like these, is surely going to bring about some change!