A day ahead of the December 1 D-Day feared by banks in the country, bank branches across the Malabar region faced the wrath of customers on Wednesday and at many places branches were forced to shut down by mobs.
ATMs remained dry in many parts of the northern districts, which are the worst affected by the cash shortage as they get far fewer cash supplies from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) than the southern districts. Many of the major banks’ cash chests, which store the currency supplies from the RBI, were empty and hence they could not pump in the notes to the banks or refill their ATMs.
The branches that were forced to closed down included those of Canara Bank, Kerala Gramin Bank, State Bank of Travancore, and Syndicate Bank. Fearing public fury, many branches chose to suspend all their transactions.
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Several branches of Canara Bank in Kozhikode district — such as at Payyoli, Thooneri and Parakkadavu — were forced to shut by the mobs. People, who had run out of patience when told that there was no cash left with the bank to pay them, got wild, hurled abuses on the bank staff and forcibly shut down the banks.
Most branches of Canara Bank could dispense only a fraction of the Rs.24,000 cash allowed to be drawn. A Kozhikode city branch started off dispensing Rs.6,000 to each of the customers standing in line in the morning; but by noon, it reduced the cash ration to Rs.4,000.
A Canara Bank official said the bank’s Kozhikode city chest had not got its replenishment on Tuesday and hence ATMs could not be loaded. So, all the ATMs had gone dry.
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Anticipating trouble, senior officials had on Tuesday evening itself asked the police to provide security at the branches on Wednesday. A senior official told The Hindu that the bank had got ‘some cash’ to be dispensed on Thursday, but he feared that it would be too small to meet the pay-day demand from the customers.
Gramin Bank’s plight
Kerala Gramin Bank, which mostly operates in the rural areas, had to bear the brunt of the customer anger. Almost two-thirds of the bank’s 600 branches are located in Malabar. Though the bank has such large numbers of branches, it does not have a cash chest of its own and has to rely on other banks for its cash supplies.
Since the bank could note dispense cash, several of its branches were forced to close. At Morayoor, Tanur, Makkaraparambu, Karuvarakundu, Vaniyambalam, and Koottayi in Malappuram district, restive customers turned hostile and staged protests. At one branch, the manager, unable to stand people’s demands, swooned.
On Tuesday, KGB’s Vilangad branch in Kozhikode district was forced to shut down by the hundreds of customers gathered to draw cash. The angry mob dispersed only after the local panchayat president and others intervened.
An official told The Hindu that the bank issued 250 tokens to the customers promising that cash would be paid on Thursday. The branch could not dispense any cash on Wednesday. However, a senior KGB official said the bank had on Wednesday received only Rs.26 crores.