Centre writes to RBI over low circulation of 'visually impaired friendly' coins

Nainital: The Centre has written to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asking it to ensure that ‘visually impaired friendly’ coins are widely circulated in public after a group of lawyers argued that non-availability of these coins violated rights of blind people under Article 14 of the Constitution.

The lawyers had written to the Centre arguing that even though the government issued the notification for these coins in March 2019 and PM Narendra Modi released the series, these coins are available in very limited numbers in the market. In fact, the Rs 20 denomination-coin is so scarce that it is being sold online for nearly 10 times its actual value, said Rohit Dandriyal, one of the advocates who approached the government.

The coins, in denomination of Rs 1, Rs 2, Rs 5, Rs 10 and Rs 20, were introduced in March 2019 with several features to help visually impaired people. But they remain in low circulation even two and half years later, said the lawyers in their letter to the Centre.

The group also cited Right To Information (RTI) replies received from several banks to show that though they had been supplied these coins by the RBI in the year 2019-20 and 2020-21, they failed to bring them into the market for the common people.

The Central Bank of India, according to the letter, failed to circulate nearly half of the Rs 10 coin it received in 2019-20 while the Indian Bank did not circulate any of the Rs 20 coins. “The situation was similar in the next financial year as well when the Indian Bank could circulate only 1% of the Rs 10 coins,” Dandriyal added.

A letter was written last week by Rajiv R Singh, deputy secretary (coin) in the ministry of finance to the chief general manager-in-charge of the RBI requesting him to ensure wide circulation of these coins. “These new circulatory coins with inclusive and socially equitable features are minted and supplied to RBI for circulation thereafter. It is therefore requested to RBI to ensure that these visually impaired friendly coins are widely circulated in the public to ensure its availability at ground level,” read the letter dated October 7.