Old 50 and 20 rupee notes will continue to be valid, Reserve Bank of India has said.

The Reserve Bank of India has said it will soon release new notes of Rs 20 and Rs 50 denomination. All old notes, however, will continue to be valid, the bank has said.The notes, which will be issued shortly, will be in the 2005 Mahatma Gandhi series. They will bear the signature of RBI Governor Urijit Patel and the year of printing, 2016, printed on the reverse. The design and security features of the notes will be similar to the earlier banknotes, the bank said.The RBI's move comes less than a month after the Government's shock announcement of scrapping high denomination notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000.

The weeks since has witnessed huge queues outside banks and ATMs. The matter has become a full-blown political controversy, with the opposition citing the distress of the common man.PM Modi has said that a survey on the notes ban conducted on his app has proved that the people back his effort to crack down on black money and corruption. The opposition has dismissed the survey as "fake and sponsored".