Fgn missions seek easy cash withdrawal, card payments

"After the demonetisation, we got several distress calls from our nationals who were stuck in places like Bodhgaya due to cash crunch as well as hampered currency exchange process.

"We wrote to MEA which said it was looking into it. We tried to help our nationals as much as we could," a top Sri Lankan High Commission official said.

An estimated 300,000 Sri Lankan tourists visit India annually of whom nearly 200,000 come for pilgrimage. Apart from Sri Lanka, people from other countries like Japan also travel to India, which has a treasure trove of Buddhist shrines, for pilgrimage.

Deploring that a lot of foreign visitors were facing problems due to demonetisation, Frank Hans Dannenberg Castellanos, who as Dean of the diplomatic corps here represents the voice of 157 foreign missions, said he has raised the issue with Ministry of External Affairs.

"I have raised the issue with the ministry and asked them to ensure that steps like acceptance of credit cards at monuments like the Taj Mahal are initiated because these are frequented by tourists in big numbers.

"I have also asked them that there should be enough ATMs around the tourists spots and in hotels so that cash could be easily available to travellers," Castellanos, Ambassador of the Dominican Republic, told PTI.

For 32 World Heritage Monuments, the ticket price for foreign nationals is Rs 500, while for other sites it is Rs 200.

For Taj Mahal, however, at present, a foreigner pays Rs 1,000 as entry fee.