Non-availability of currency notes leads to road roko

Vehicular traffic on Kothamangalam - Keeramangalam, Kothamangalam - Aranthangi and Kothamangalam - Pudukottai segments came to a standstill for about half-an-hour on Friday, when residents of Kothamangalam village, resorted to road roko protesting non-availability of currency notes at a nationalised bank branch.

Movement of buses disrupted

Irked over the notice put up by the Bank of India branch stating that it had run out of currency, the customers, mostly women, squatted on the highway, disrupting the movement of buses.

They said they were waiting at the bank’s branch for about three hours and the announcement had totally disappointed them.

Marikannu, one of the customers, said that many of them were beneficiaries of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

Residents of 10 villages were operating their savings account in the branch.

The villagers said that they had been visiting the branch for the past three days only to return home without cash.

Police hold talks

Police personnel rushed to the spot and held talks with the agitating villagers.

Later it was said that the bank officials made special arrangements for allowing withdrawals by evening.