Notices of “no cash’’ greeted people at ATMs of the provisional State capital on Monday. People faced inconvenience as most of the ATMs of the city ran out of the cash. Festival of Janmashtami was also celebrated on Monday and like other festivals
the demand for cash was more on the day. The situation
would worsen further on Tuesday as the banks would remain closed for fourth consecutive day on account of Independence Day.
The claims of all banks to manage their ATM network fell flat on its face as people went from one machine to another in search of cash on Monday. Few ATMs which did provide cash were only dispensing notes of Rs 2,000 denomination while some of them had imposed restriction of Rs 3,000 on the withdrawals.
The cash crisis in the ATMs was triggered by back to back bank holidays starting from August 12 (as per the RBI guidelines the banks remain closed on second and fourth Saturday of the month). August 13 was Sunday while the extended holiday spree would continue on August 14 and 15 on account of Janmashtami and Independence Day.
The absence of cash in the ATM network of the city infuriated the people. “It is very disgusting on part of the banks to keep the ATMs devoid of cash. The authorities should have for foreseen such a situation as holidays for four consecutive days were scheduled this month,’’ said Anil Sati a Mehuwala resident.
Shalini Bisht, a resident of Raipur road said, “The banks should have taken note of the festival of Janmashtami on Monday and ensured that cash is available in the ATMs for convenience of general public.’’
The situation in other parts of the state remained more and less similar to Dehradun. The state has a network of 532 bank branches and 1,600 ATMs.
The Manager of the district lead branch, BS Martolia said that task of filling ATMs is entrusted on third party vendors and holidays in the bank should have no impact on the ATM network. He, however, accepted that banks are facing minor shortage of cash these days.