On Sunday, the first holiday after announcement of the decision to demonetise currency of Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 500 denomination, a number of working professionals, students and businesspersons thronged banks in the city in large numbers to avail new notes by surrendering the demonetised notes at their disposal and to withdraw cash from their accounts.
Shankarappa V.H., a milk vendor visited a branch of a private bank at Savalanga Road with his daughter Sinchana S.S., a first PU student. He told The Hindu that the ceiling imposed on withdrawal had affected his business badly. As his daughter had a holiday, he had brought her to the bank to withdraw some money from her account too to be able to meet the financial needs of his business.
Severe setback
Sunil Kumar Jain, who runs a wholesale business of paper plates and cups, said business activities have faced serious setbacks owing to the ceiling imposed on cash withdrawals. As commercial establishments in the Central Business District in the city will be closed on Sunday, he had came to the bank to withdraw cash to meet his family’s daily expenses.
Basavaraj, a student from Belagavi, pursuing engineering at a private college in the city, heaved sigh of relief after exchanging demonetised currency with new notes at a nationalised bank on B.H. Road in the city. He said that after the announcement to withdraw the old notes, he faced many problems as the demonetised currency at his disposal was not being accepted at restaurants and grocery shops. “I could not even get study material photocopied,” he said. “I could not exchange the notes as I used to be in college during banking hours. The delay in commencement of the functioning of ATMs worsened the problem,” he added.
Non-functioning ATMs
Meanwhile, most ATM kiosks remained non-functional in the city on Sunday too. Y. Dilipkumar Reddy, serving as manager with Allahabad Bank, said the completion of the process of calibration of ATMs for new currency required time.
At some banks, the service of exchange of demonetised notes for non-customers was suspended from 2 p.m. Rajesh A.C., manager, Karnataka Bank, said that owing to paucity of cash, there were interruptions in some banks in the exchange of currency notes.
Tight security
In the wake of the incident o f theft from a woman standing in the queue at a nationalised bank reported on Friday, police personnel were deployed as a security measure at banks that saw a large number of customers.
