Thulasiamma spreads onions and chillies in baskets at Irugur every Sunday morning and the sales go on till noon almost. She is present every Sunday at the weekly market at Irugur.
However, this week, she was able to make a sales of just Rs. 200 on Sunday morning. “When people do not have cash, how will they buy?,” she asks and shows the unsold vegetables with her. Azhagu, another vegetable vendor at the weekly market, says he does not accept Rs. 500 notes. And, sales had dropped this week.
As customers stood in long queues in front of the bank branches in Coimbatore district from morning on Sunday for exchange, deposit, or withdrawal of cash, several traders and vendors said they were facing a drop in sales. Though a majority of the ATMs were not functioning on Sunday too, there were long queues of the public in front of those ATMs that had cash.
According to Lead Bank Manager A. Kanagaraj, the crowd is only increasing every day. Some banks are unable to give cash to the customers as they have run out of money.
There is a problem of shortage of Rs. 100 denomination currencies and banks are managing the situation by giving cash in different denominations. A few banks have started receiving cash from the Reserve Bank of India and hence were able to operate the ATMs.
Banks are now disbursing funds till 3.30 p.m. or a little later.
Meanwhile, according to a circular received by the postal department, post offices will function till 8 p.m. every day and will be open on Sundays too for the benefit of the public. Though November 14 is a Government holiday, the post offices will function on Monday. The department opened a counter at RMS, Coimbatore on Sunday and will do so at Tirupur and Erode RMS, too.
