Frustrating day for salaried class

Banks in the State, faced with cash crunch, put a cap on withdrawals

People queue up at a private bank's ATM on the M.G. Road in Vijayawada on Thursday.

VIJAYAWADA: The salaried class and the pensioners who stood in serpentine queues at banks across the State on Thursday, the pay day, were only able to get a portion of their earnings in hand as the banks restricted withdrawal to less than Rs. 10, 000.

The activity at the banks and the ATMs picked up since morning until cash was available. While a majority of the ATMs ran out of cash and remained closed, bank branches managed to give customers about Rs. 6, 000 to Rs. 10,000 per customer against the maximum limit of Rs. 24, 000 citing lack of cash and need for facilitating more number of customers.

In Vijayawada, a majority of public banks were able to give a maximum Rs. 10,000 per customer. Though private banks gave more than Rs. 15, 000 per customer, some of them stopped functioning much before the closing hours.

In Visakhapatnam, a similar situation prevailed. Those drawing less than Rs. 6,000 say they are the worst affected.

“Everything went well with the distribution of cash to customers and there were no untoward incidents,” said an official of the SBI.

Separate counters

In Kurnool too, most of the ATMs remained closed. The State Bank of India treasury branch on the Kurnool Collectorate premises permitted withdrawal of Rs. 20,000, but gave only notes of Rs. 2,000.

Separate counters were set up for pensioners and senior citizens, women and non-home accounts in the bank.

In the temple town of Tirupati, pay day cast a shadow on the banking scenario with bankers finding it tough managing the surge of customers standing in front of the branches and the ATMs. Several banks complained of cash shortage and the ATMs went dry within an hour of loading the cash.

Rs. 500 notes reportedly reached the SBI in Chittoor town and Andhra Bank in Kadapa town, but not the banks in Tirupati.

While a few employees expressed concern over getting their salaries sliced, employers in retail outlets too are in a fix.

Entrepreneurs running small outlets in the One Town Area in Vijayawada ended up paying little to their staff.