With no let up in long queues outside banks in the metropolis and suburbs, a 73-year-old man fainted and died on Friday afternoon, while waiting for his turn in front of a State Bank of India (SBI) branch at Mulund in north-east Mumbai to exchange demonetised notes.
On a day when scores of ATMs belonging to different banks across the city either went out of money or had network issues, the Centre’s demonetisation assumed a tragic dimension when a senior citizen, identified as Vishwanath Varatak, suddenly collapsed and died in front of SBI’s branch at Mulund’s Hari Om Nagar locality. Vartak was standing in a long queue in front of the bank branch when the incident happened at around 1.30 pm.
Eyewitnesses said that soon after Vartak collapsed, a few good Samaritans rushed the elderly man to a nearby hospital, where he was declared dead before admission. After a preliminary examination, doctors who attended him said that he had died of a heart attack.
Meanwhile, ATMs of various banks across Mumbai and elsewhere in the State reopened in the morning, after two days’ closure to serpentine queues. There was utter chaos in front of some ATMs, where there was no one to control the people standing in queues.
Anxiety to withdraw cash got the better of the people waiting at a few places where people exchanged harsh words with one another over jumping of queues. However, no untoward incident was reported from any part of the city and its suburbs.
Many felt that time spent in long queues was not communesrate with a meager cash of Rs 2,000 that each person was allowed to withdraw from an ATM per day. The ATM banking stipulation would continue till November 18. The withdrawal limit would be raised to Rs 4,000 per day per card from November 19.
Hundreds of people returned home empty handed, as ATMs at many places in downtown Mumbai, Parel lalbaug in south-central Mumbai, Dadar, Matunga in north-central Mumbai, Andheri, Vile Parle in north-west Mumbai and north-eastern suburbs like Ghatkopar and Mulund either went dry or developed network issues during the course of the day.