People continued to battle long queues outside banks and ATMs on Friday, struggling to get cash for their daily expenses, on the tenth consecutive day since the Government announced the demonetisation of high-value currency notes.
People were seen standing outside banks and teller machines since early morning to get cash or deposit or exchange currency notes.
People expressed frustration and disappointment over the long waits. And many were angry because their previous attempts had failed because many teller machines were non-functional, including the ones inside metro stations, as they ran out of cash or developed technical glitches.
Most ATMs had boards of "No cash" and "Out of cash" on them. It is taking people around 1-2 hours to withdraw `2,500, the upper limit set by the Government. Bankers are saying it may take another 10-15 days to get all ATMs re-calibrated to dispense high denomination notes of `500/2,000. Mirroring state of affairs in the country, branches and ATMs at seat of power like Parliament House, Finance Ministry and other ministries also have long queues for the withdrawal.
Even in the evening, anxious people were seen visiting ATMs to check whether the cash was available.
"Instead of cash, I'm getting receipts that there is no cash available in the ATMs," a man said after trying several automated teller machines. Another woman who was in dire need of money said, "I have only `50 left in my pocket. If I do not get money I will not be able to purchase my daily needs on Saturday."
People were seen asking one another outside ATMs whether the machine was dispensing cash or not.
An HCl employee waiting outside an Axis Bank ATM in a long winding queue said he had no option but to "keep waiting" for cash. "I have been waiting here for the past two hours to withdraw some cash. I have only `30 in my wallet."
Meanwhile, banks at Connaught Place, Kashmiri Gate and Sarojini Market were not so crowded on Friday and there were smooth transaction inside the banks. On the other hand, banks had normal working day on Friday after implementing new series of directives issued by the Central Government.
The move to reduce the limit of exchanging money to `2000 has seen positive impact on controlling crowd. Sher Singh Malik, 67, standing outside Bank of India, Parliament Street, said "I had a hard time as waiting hours in queue is difficult for me but today (Friday) I exchanged it in just ten minutes. I knew this chaos was for few days but the decision would have long impact."
Reacting on the thin crowds outside RBI office, a security guard said, "Watching people standing calmly in queue is certainly a new experience and it is now easy for us to manage them without putting any extra efforts. Earlier we did not even have time to get ourselves fresh."