Sixty three ATM centres of different banks in Ganjam district are still not functioning even after more than a month of Phailin cyclone.
As a majority of these ATM counters are in rural areas it is causing problems. On Monday a meeting was called by the Ganjam district administration to identify and solve the problems. Before this meeting the administration had asked the Lead District Manager (LDM) of banks in Ganjam district to furnish a report regarding non-functional ATM centres in the district. This report was discussed at this meeting.
As per the report at total of 63 ATMs were not functioning for various reasons in different parts of the district. Sixteen of them were not functioning due to lack of power supply. The district administration has taken up the issue with the power distribution company.
Twenty four ATM counters were out of service due to software or hardware problems. It was decided that the banks concerned would try to solve the problem as early as possible. Eleven ATM counters of the SBI were defunct for this reason.
Due to it two ATMs of Andhra Bank, four ATMs each of Punjab National Bank (PNB) and ICICI Bank were also defunct.
The cyclone had also snapped VSAT link of several ATM counters in the district. Some of them have been restored while the others are yet to be functional. Due to snapping of VSAT link, 22 ATM centres are still defunct. The district administration advised the banks to replace the VSAT equipment as early as possible.
Meanwhile, the Ganjam District Collector on Monday wrote to the Additional Chief Secretary of the Odisha government in charge of finance department regarding the problem. He sought intervention of the Additional Chief Secretary for speedy restoration of defunct ATMs.
Given the cash crunch in the district all these days, some people had travelled to Andhra Pradesh to collect cash from ATMs.
