Visually-challenged senior citizen approaches collector with old Rs 500, 1000 notes worth Rs 65,000

In an unfortunate turn of events, Chinnakannu, a visually challenged septuagenarian in Tamil Nadu recently realized that his life savings held in cash were not even worth the paper it was printed on. Living off the alms offered by people, the destitute senior citizen managed to save Rs 65,000 over several years and had kept in a place he considered safe. However, owing to illness and other factors, he had forgotten about his cash savings. 

Chinnakannu, a Visually-challenged septuagenarian, seen at Krishnagiri, Collector Office, with a wad of demonetized Rs.1000&500 notes amounting to Rs.65K

He hopes to get it converted to usable cash.. he had kept the money safely & had forgotten about it for many yrs.. pic.twitter.com/FOiarsh7N2

— Sidharth.M.P (@sdhrthmp) October 19, 2021

Only recently did the elderly person come to know of demonetization, which was announced on November 8th 2016, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A friend of his is understood to have told him about the ‘old notes’ not being of any use.

It was on Monday that the senior citizen approached the Krishnagiri district collector, with the help of a cobbler. The senior citizen had petitioned the collector to help him out in converting the demonetized currency (consisting of Rs 1000 and 500 notes) into legal tender. 

The issue came to light after pictures and videos of the visually challenged person holding a wad of invalid currency notes were widely shared. In the video, Chinnakannu says that he found the cash only on Sunday and realized about the notes being illegal tender and that he didn’t know about this earlier. He added that he was at the Collector's office to ensure that this currency can be converted into usable currency.