Any amount of effort by bank officials in re-filling the Automated Teller Machines at the ATM Corner of the main branch of State Bank of India here only resulted in the ATMs going dry within a few hours all through Saturday.
Though the serpentine queue was not to be seen for the past two weeks, there was a sudden increase in the number of customers standing before the ATMs today. Most of them were salaried class employees or pensioners whose wages or pension was credited on Saturday morning.
Apart from the customers at the ATM units, there was a large turn-out of pensioners who had thronged the bank with cheque leaves.
The problem of non-availability of currencies cropped up at the Farmers’ Grievances Day meeting held here on Friday. K. S. Palanisamy, District Collector, said that the Reserve Bank of India alone was the competent authority for deciding the allocation of currency notes to banks.
“The district administration has no role to play in this regard,” he clarified when farmers complained about poor availability of currency notes in primary banks.
R. Subramaniam, Deputy General Secretary of Cauvery Delta Farmers Welfare Association, said that the cooperative banks were being looked upon as chit funds or financing companies. Equitable distribution of currency notes should be ensured for cooperative banks on par with nationalised banks. “Unfortunately, the cooperative banks are being given a step-motherly treatment, resulting in severe hardship to rural customers,” he said.
