Banks operating in the four districts — Adilabad, Kumram Bheem Asifabad, Mancherial and Nirmal — are now worried over safety of the building stock of demonetised currency notes in different branches as most of the over 300 bank branches in the four districts do not have ‘proper’ strongrooms.
On an average, the main branch of State Bank of Hyderabad in Adilabad town, which is also the Lead Bank, is receiving demonetised currency notes with a face value of Rs. 8 crore every day while some others in important centres like Mancherial and Nirmal are receiving about Rs. 3 crore in old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes. The rest of the branches of the 31 banks have received the demonetised notes with a face value of about Rs. 1.5 to Rs. 2 crore by way of exchange during the last 10 days.
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“Many of our branches in rural areas have about Rs. 2 crore each of demonetised currency notes and safety is the main concern as these branches operate out of private premises which do not have proper strongrooms,” pointed out an official of the Telangana Grameena Bank, which has over 100 branches under its two Regional Offices operating in the rural areas of the four districts. “The SBH, our sponsor bank and the chest branch, should take the notes as our bank will stand to lose heavily in case of any eventuality,” added the worried officer.
“Banks can transport the banned currency notes to their own chests as we too are flooded with the exchanged notes. We will accept once RBI clears our pile,” clarified SBH Assistant General Manager P. Umamaheswara Rao.
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The TBG has also accused the SBH of discrimination in apportioning of cash for day-to-day operations in its branches. “We are disbursing cash judiciously because of the crunch we are facing,” the AGM explained.
“The SBH main branch disburses about Rs. 10 lakh to each of the 10 banks which have their accounts with it while it gives Rs. 50 lakh to the TGB which operates 21 branches. It is not enough for our operations as we have a large customer base and serve in rural areas,” the TGB official noted.
The constraint imposed by demonetisation on banking operations is likely to ease somewhat as the government has restricted the quantum value of exchange of old notes to Rs. 2,000. “The move will certainly bring down the demand for valid currency notes,” Mr. Umamaheswara Rao agreed.