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Demonetisation: Eight-Year-Old Dies In Jammu As Father Couldn't Arrange For Transport With Old Currency Notes

A life snuffed out.
Jayanta Dey / Reuters

The unintended but tragic fallout of sudden demonetisation has yet to abate. In the latest heartbreaking incident reported from Jammu & Kashmir's 's Samba district, a man lost his son as he didn't have new currency notes to arrange for transport.

According to a report in the Telegraph, Mohammad Haroon walked more than 30 km on Friday with his ailing eight-year-old son as he couldn't arrange for any transport to take him to the hospital because he had no new notes.

Haroon, carried his son, Muneer, on his shoulders for the second half of the journey, but by the time he reached the hospital, the boy was dead.

"For several days, Haroon had walked the long distance from his village Baboon to a bank in Khoon to exchange the invalid notes but returned home empty-handed every time," Anwar Chowdhary, a relative of Haroon, reportedly said. "There was a heavy rush at the bank, and possibly he was shooed away for being a Gujjar." Gujjars are a tribal community that often face discrimination on many counts.

In the meantime, Muneer fell ill.

"He possibly had pneumonia," Chowdhary said. "Father and son started walking around 8 pm [on Friday]. On the way, Muneer's health deteriorated and his father lifted him on his shoulders. By midnight they had reached Khoon village. At Khoon he found a cab but the driver refused to take the old notes. He walked for another four hours carrying his son on his shoulders to reach a private hospital at Manser. But a doctor there declared him dead on arrival."

The deceased was buried on Saturday after the government provided the family with a vehicle to take his body to the graveyard.

The move has resulted in long queues at banks and ATMs everywhere.

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