People’s patience began to run thin with most of the 1,250 ATMs in the district either remained shut or ran out of cash soon after they were filled, for the second consecutive day on Saturday.
Things took a turn for the worse when the stock of Rs.100 notes with banks started to exhaust at an alarming rate with no proportionate replenishment from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
There is still no information as to when the new Rs.500 notes will be supplied to banks till which time they will have to load ATMs with Rs.100 notes alone.
Moreover, ATMs have to be recalibrated to dispense the newly minted Rs.2,000 notes. The State Bank of India (SBI) deposited nearly Rs.4 crore in its ATMs in the city on Saturday and had to make refills at several centres. Using Rs.100 notes alone for filling ATMs meant that only Rs.2.50 lakh and a maximum of Rs.5 lakh could be loaded in place of around Rs.40 lakh previously.
The time taken to reset the technical configuration of ATMs, which were completely disconnected to avoid dispensation of Old High Denomination (OHD) currency notes after the demonetisation announcement, is another cause for delay.
“Loading of notes, which previously could be done in 10-15 minutes, now takes up to 45 minutes,” a senior bank official said.
Meanwhile, sources said a semblance of normalcy in the functioning of ATMs could be expected only by the end of November.
Adding to difficulties
Exchange of OHD currency notes continued at all bank branches, accounting for an inward cash flow running into crores of rupees. For instance, the 35 city branches of the SBI alone accounted for daily deposits running into Rs.35 to Rs.40 crore. This added to the difficulties of officials as they had to count those currency notes and arrange for their movement to the RBI, a process which often got over in the early morning hours after the closure of bank branches in the previous evening.
