The bank issued public notices and directives to banking and financial institutions it regulates to reduce the use of such notes.

Such notes can be exchanged anywhere for the next couple months, but will not be exchanged after April, 2011, the central bank said.

NRB has also said, it will not accept note wads with more than one stitch.

Soiled, torn notes and notes that are written all over are in common use in Nepal.

Meanwhile, NRB has said, it will not issue new currency notes of small denominations before the upcoming Dashain festival. People exchange new currency notes worth millions of rupees before the Dashain festival to use them during Tika. nepalnews.com