A day after the deadline for exchange of demonetised notes over the bank counters ended, the long queues disappeared in front of the banks on Friday.
For a minute, one believed there is truth in the allegations that most of the queues are made up of people exchanging the cancelled notes for those holding unaccounted cash for a commission. But a word with a public sector bank branch staff in Manikonda makes it clear that there is no cash after all to disburse.
“Whatever cash we had, we disbursed to those who came for withdrawals till 1 p.m.,” she said even as a group of people started gathering outside the bank little aware that the bank had run out of cash.
A few yards away, a leading private bank had put up a ‘No Cash’ board outside. “ We were confident we could draw cash now as banks were no longer exchanging old notes.
But we didn’t expect the bank to run out of cash before noon,” said a bank customer.
No to media
That was more or less the situation in several bank branches, both public sector and private, across the city. But unlike the last couple of weeks, the bank officials were not forthcoming to share the details of cash crunch or how long will the rationing of cash will continue.
A clampdown notice apparently has been issued prohibiting bank branch managers from speaking to media or any social media platform. A communication from the headquarters of a PSU bank said “Bank branch managers are not competent to talk about demonetisation impact on banks as they do not have any details with them. Violation of the directive will invite disciplinary action. Any query should be directed to the administrative office or the head office,” it said.
Two weeks after the demonetisation, ATMs of several banks, sources said, have been recalibrated to disburse Rs.500 and Rs.100 notes whenever they arrive. “Our ATMs have been recalibrated. But we did not get Rs.500 notes or Rs.100 to load ATMs,” a bank staff member said.
The banks for the last few days were not even getting one-third of their daily requirement of cash. Situation may improve when banks reopen on Monday after the week-end, an officer said.
