For accepting old notes in hospitals

Guwahati, Nov 13 : In the wake of the prevailing currency crisis, the Assam government is mulling extension of the deadline for making payments in scrapped currency notes to help those undergoing treatment at government hospitals, Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Sunday.

Although the central government has extended the deadline to accept the old currency notes in government hospitals to November 14, the state government plans to extend the deadline further by another week to help those undergoing treatment in government hospitals, Sarma said.

"The Central government's deadline will end tomorrow. Let's see if the central government extends the deadline further. In case the Centre does not extend this, we might go for extending this by another week," the Minister said.

The Minister, however, said the same cannot be extended to private hospitals, as the central government had not included the private hospitals in its earlier order.