Woes of the customers continued for the second day here across the Pearl city on Friday.
After the Centre announced the move to ban Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes from circulation, normal life in the business region was hit badly. Since a majority of the ATMs were either not operating or issued in a rationed manner, the common man faced sufferings.
The leading public sector banks, including the State Bank of India, Indian Bank and Canara Bank continued to witness long queues from as early as 8 a.m. While the bankers refused to entertain people other than account holders, the time taken to get the money deposited into their respective accounts or withdrawal took long hours.
The bankers too had to sit through long hours beyond the normal business hours. “Our intention was to minimise inconvenience to customers. We hope, there would be total normalcy by Monday...” a banker in SBI said.
As there were very limited higher denomination currencies, many customers left the branches upset. Fernandes, a businessman, holding a SB account, who wanted to get Rs 20,000 was given Rs.4,000 only. As he could not withdraw from the ATMs as well, he was stranded.
The mood in the markets, which normally used to witness a hectic activity, was dull and looked deserted since forenoon. As many as 250 mechanised boats were off the sea as fishermen could not get the required materials on time before setting off for fishing.
Nagercoil
People faced difficulty for the third consecutive day in withdrawing money from ATMs in Kanniyakumari district on Friday.
The ATMs were closed for two days as per the order of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, people were allowed to exchange currencies of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 in all the banks from Thursday.
People flocked to the ATMs in large numbers on Friday morning, but disappointed, as cash was not replenished by the bank officials.
A majority of the ATMs attached to the nationalised banks and ‘standalone’ ATMs were dry till Friday afternoon. However, ATMs of ICICI, HDFC and a few private bank ATMs were replenished around 11 a.m.
A majority of banks faced difficulty in dispensing with low denomination currencies in lieu of invalidated currencies, due to shortage of new currencies.
Though people were allowed to buy railway tickets with invalidated high-value currencies, people found it difficult to buy tickets at the reservation counters for the last two days.
