Pay day rush: branches resort to rationing; ATMs still dry

New Delhi: Faced with currency shortage and long queues, banks on Thursday resorted to rationing of cash at many branches countrywide but met with limited success to handle the huge pay-day rush, while ATMs continued to remain mostly dry, causing hardship to people seeking to withdraw money.

People in several parts of Tamil Nadu even braved heavy rains to get money for their household expenses, while long queues started building up in wee hours before ATMs and bank branches for withdrawal of start-of-the-month expenses on the first post-demonetisation pay day across several other states including Kerala, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab and Haryana.

Having got much less than their regular requirement from the currency chests, many branches ran out of cash in post- lunch hours, even as people complained about being given money even below the permitted withdrawal limits at branches.

Long queue were visible at many places for withdrawal as a large number of ATMs are still not functional. Even the functional ATMs at many places could dispense only Rs 2,000 notes, leaving the customers without lower denomination notes.

Frustration and anger were also visible at many places in semi-urban and rural areas where banks and ATMs soon ran dry.

Metro cities too had similar scenes at many places with patience turning into anger against bank employees for their failure to provide currency other than Rs 2,000 notes.

Bankers said on their part that the situation is expected to continue for another 6-7 days because of withdrawal rush from salaried and pensioners.

Despite claims by various banks that adequate arrangement would be in place to handle the pay-day rush, branches were seen not only rationing the cash, many of them also refused to entertain the non-home branch customers.

A senior public sector bank official said the branches are compelled to resort to rationing because of cash shortage and it is difficult to meet the withdrawal limit of Rs 24,000 per person set by the Reserve Bank.

Some banks were seen disbursing only Rs 5,000 per person while those having better cash availability offered Rs 10,000 or Rs 12,000 per customer.

Making things worse, a large number of ATMs remained dry even 24 days after the government scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes earlier this month to crack down on black money.

Banks and state treasuries in Kerala witnessed heavy rush since morning, while the state’s Finance Minister Thomas Issac said 42 treasuries in rural areas did not receive any cash at least till 11.30 AM.

On Wednesday, a top government official had said special efforts were being made to pump in exta cash into banks to meet the heavy demand for currency notes on account of salary withdrawals but situation on the ground remained a far cry.

“As such, none of our branches are short of cash. We have ensured that enough cash is available at our branches in anticipation of higher demand after disbursement of salaries and pension in accordance with the customers demand,” Canara Bank MD and CEO Rakesh Sharma told PTI.

Customers ‘harassed’ as banks, ATMs go dry on payday

Chandigarh: Bank customers faced harassment and inconvenience at various places in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh while withdrawing cash on payday even as banks claimed that they put adequate measures in place to deal with the heavy rush.

From youngsters to elders stood in serpentine queues outside bank branches and ATMs for hours in order to withdraw cash with banks facing tough time to deal with angry customers who were denied money.

Several bank branches saw “shortage” of cash at their disposal and some branches went dry within an hour or so of receiving fresh lot of money for disbursement from RBI, officials said.

“Banks are facing massive shortage of cash and people are fighting with bank staff when they do not get money,” said an official of State Bank of Patiala.

“What could we do when we do not have sufficient cash,” asked official while justifying the position of banks on being unable to meet all cash requirements of people.

Besides blaming insufficient cash, banks pointed out people are reluctant with parting with fresh cash which further complicated the matter.

“People are hoarding cash and there is not enough circulation of money in the market which has made the matter worse,” bank official said adding that which is why banks had imposed limit on cash disbursements in order to accommodate maximum people.

Fed up with standing in queue for withdrawing their own money, bank customers put blame on the “ill-preparedness” of the government in dealing with problems arose after demonetisation of old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.

“It has become difficult to get even our own cash,” fumed bank customers Sukhdarshan Singh.

Punjab Bank employees federation secretary Naresh Gaur said, “We appeal to RBI to make available sufficient cash as soon as possible to banks otherwise the situation will turn worse.”

He said that a security guard of State Bank of Patiala in Bathinda was allegedly beaten up by few angry men yesterday after the guard asked them to stand in a queue.

“We have also asked for police protection in order to prevent any untoward incident,” he said.

Meanwhile, an official of Central Bank of India in Chandigarh claimed that they had sufficient cash and they did not face any problem in disbursement. .

Meanwhile, a noted economist Sardara Singh Johal today praised the government for demonetisation and asked people to cooperate with it.

“We should cooperate with the efforts of the government on demonetisation. It is in the ultimate and long term interest of the people. All other things including justification or otherwise of it can be discussed later,” Johal said while addressing a function in Ludhiana today.

Johal said , “We are in trouble no doubt but we must tide over the present crises by cooperating with the government on the issue otherwise it could lead to turmoil.” PTI