The cash crunch continued to create hindrance in functioning of the banks and caused problems to people who visited them on Tuesday. The ATMs too failed to provide solace to the people as most of them remained non functional or functioned for short periods only due to shortage of currency.
The Dehradun district has 532 bank branches with about a network of 1600 ATMs. It was usual picture of long serpentine queues outside the banks on Tuesday as anxious people lined up outside the banks to get old currency exchanged or get it deposited in their accounts. “I first stood outside an ATM to get the currency and when my turn came after waiting for more than two hours the machine stopped dispensing the cash. I am now waiting in the queue outside the bank as I have exhausted all my cash,’’ said a Rajpur road resident. Some people having outside accounts also faced problems in depositing the money when they visited the bank branches here to deposit the money as the some banks refused to accept money from these customers. This occurred despite of the fact that banks claim that their braches are connected through CBS system.
The bank officials are terming shortage of cash as the reason for non operation of the ATMs. The Manager of District lead Bank responsible for coordination among all the bank branches, Gopal Singh Rana said that the new consignment of the `500 currency notes was expected to arrive on the day but by evening it didn’t made it to the state capital. To expedite the supply of new currency, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is using the services of the Indian Air Force (IAF) to airlift the currency. Meanwhile in order to prevent people from visiting the bank branches again after availing the benefit of cash exchange once, the RBI on Tuesday asked the banks to put indelible ink on the finger of the customers. However this practice was not followed in the banks of the State on the day.
The cash shortage forced the members of the All Uttarakhand Parents Association to meet the Additional District Magistrate (ADM) administration Harbir Singh and requested him to ask the private schools to accept cheque and online transfers as means of deposition of fees. The State president of the association, Neeraj Singhal said that the after the move of demonetisation of `1000 and `500 notes the parents are facing problem of cash due to which the schools should be directed to accept other means of payment from the parents. The ADM Singh said that he has convened a meeting of heads of all private schools of the city on Saturday. In the meeting the district administration would ask the school to adopt such measures so that the parents face no problem in deposition of fees.