The people of the district had a harrowing experience in the wake of the demonetisation for the second consecutive day on Saturday after the ATMs were opened first on Friday.
Similarly, the customers who wanted to deposit and exchange old high denomination notes faced no less difficulty. It appeared that the banks were hardly prepared to tackle the situation. In front of all the banks and ATMs, including in those in rural bases, long serpentine queues were a common sight.
In most of the places, the ATMs were shut down in the morning. People complained that the ATMs were either closed, giving a message of link failure or out of order etc.
It was a Herculean task to get the job done either to withdraw money from the bank, ATM counters or to get the old notes exchanged, most people opined.
“The ATM counters are supposed to be opened for 24 hours. Here, they were closed since Thursday night. Whichever are opened, cash is not available in them. Despite hopping from one ATM to another, the cash couldn’t be obtained. The banks have failed miserably to tackle the crisis. They should load the cash soon after they get exhausted,” several people complained.
However, some banks said that they didn’t have adequate cash to load. There was a shortage of low denomination currency notes. Besides, the lower denomination notes consume more space and get exhausted shortly, they said.
While there are long queues in front of the banks, several customers alleged that there was separate arrangement for senior citizens, women and the physically challenged.
The parking of bikes and movement of a large number of customers in front of banks caused traffic congestion at certain places.
Some customers who visited the banks for works other than deposit, withdrawal or exchange of notes faced a lot of difficulties because of rush. Many have to return without their works get done as the staff were busy in handling the current crisis.