If queues in front of ATMs during the day put off many, the situation is slightly better at night.
Getting cash from a functional ATM is not just a chore any more, but a well-planned exercise.
After going back empty-handed even after queueing at multiple ATMs during the day, a lot of account holders have now started heading out late in the night to withdraw cash. They have to stand in a queue, but they are much shorter and the chances of getting cash is also better, they say. As word spread, ATMs which hardly saw any customers at night are now seeing more people queuing up.
“I was returning home in a cab one day and was discussing the shortage of cash with the driver. Suddenly, we saw around 10 people standing outside a small ATM kiosk on Old Airport Road. I realised that the queue was shorter than what I had grown used to seeing during the day. We stopped the car immediately. The driver and me withdrew money in around 20 minutes,” said Akshata S., a software professional
Like her, many are taking a walk around their localities at night looking for an ATM. “I finish work at 4 a.m. On the way back, I check small ATM kiosks in residential areas. I have been able to withdraw cash without waiting in long queues at least three times,” said Rohit Mehta, who works in the BPO industry. “But the queues are growing,” he added. At some places in Malleswaram, queues have at least 20 people even at 11 p.m. At Sanjayanagar, students scour the area on bikes in search of ATMs.
Bank guards stretched
In the face of a cash crunch, it is the sacrifices of security guards that are going unnoticed. Often, these guards work two jobs, closing the ATM at night and heading to their other job in the graveyard shift. Now, with queues at ATMs even at midnight, they have to be alert almost all through the night.
“Usually, I close this ATM at 11 p.m. and head to my next job that starts at 1 a.m. However, nowadays I cannot close the ATM at 11. As a result, I have to report for my next job without taking the small break that I used to before demonetisation,” a guard at an ATM kiosk in Domlur said.
