The woes of people as a result of demonetisation of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 currency notes continued unabated on Sunday with hundreds lining up before banks and ATMs to obtain lower denomination notes to meet their daily expenses.
Banks witnessed a heavy rush of customers to deposit the demonetised currency notes as well to get newly printed Rs. 2,000 notes and lower denomination notes. People were seen waiting outside many banks as early as 7 a.m. to exchange the defunct notes and deposit in their account.
Most of the ATMs remained non-functional for the last four days, adding to the woes of the customers. A few ATMs which started functioning on Saturday evening, ran out of cash by Sunday morning.
“I was able to withdraw money from the ATM of a private bank at Muthialpet on Saturday night but on Sunday noon the machine was shut. The bank is too crowded to withdraw the money. The government should have anticipated the difficulty before taking such an extreme step,” Vijan, a retired government employee, said. A senior employee of a nationalised bank said more ATMs would start functioning in the next two days with the recaliberation exercise fast progressing. Banks have also started receiving more currencies of lower denomination and the new Rs. 2,000 currency notes.
