: Nine days after demonetisation, there was no let—up in the rush and long queues outside banks and ATMs across the country Thursday while authorities maintained that the cash crunch situation has improved substantially and there was no panic.
As the political slugfest over the demonetisation inside and outside Parliament escalated, banks struggled to manage huge rush of people thronging branches to exchange scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 100 notes and get cash to meet their daily needs.
Despite some ATMs getting calibrated to dispense Rs 500 notes, such vending machines were running out of cash because of huge pressure of withdrawal.
Queues at some branches in the metros were tad shorter for exchange of old currencies as the process of putting indelible ink commenced yesterday. As a result of this, those who have already traded old currency notes are unable to exchange again on the same day due to the ink mark.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the rush at bank branches has come down significantly today and that there is absolutely no panic.
With the government and RBI struggling to ease cash availability, the small businesses — from vegetable vendors to dhabas and small kirana stores — that use cash as mode of transaction were the worst hit.
Work at standstill
A bulk of daily labourers were rendered jobless as construction and other activities came to a standstill in the wake of cement, sand and other supplies not coming in.
Truckers too were reportedly stranded on highways as drivers ran out of valid currency notes, affecting movement of goods in several parts of the country.
While some banks in Kolkata accepted cash, most of them stopped disbursing it mainly due to cash crunch, with a number of ATMs in and around the city putting up either “no cash” or “temporary out of service” notice.
“I am here from Assam to pursue my MA from Calcutta University. My family sends money and I use my debit card to access it. The card has expired last week and I am unable to pay my bills. Neither am I able to withdraw anything because I do not have cheques. I am left with a few Rs 500 notes to exchange...I have to skip classes to come to bank everyday for this,” Anirban Burman said in Kolkata.
Shortage of small change has hit the state—run liquor outlets, vegetable markets and small vendors in Tamil Nadu even as large number of people continued to throng various banks and ATMs which ran dry within few hours. “Shortage of small currency like Rs 100 or Rs 50 has crippled financial transactions,” said a customer waiting in queue before a public sector bank in Chennai. A group of women, affiliated to All India Democratic Women Association, symbolically performed ‘last rites’ of an ATM in Coimbatore in protest against its non—functioning.
Floral tributes
Since no money was coming from the machine, it was now dead and the women were performing its last rites, by paying floral tributes, an AIDWA representative said.
In Kerala, the state government has worked out a plan by which the salary amount would be deposited in the account of respective district collectors, who would be entrusted to disburse the salary to workers in plantation and cash crops sector. —PTI
