People angry because of shutter of an ATM being kept down despite the machine purportedly having cash at Ranipur Mod on Sunday morning blocked the busy road in the morning and started sloganeering. The police had to resort to lathi charge to disperse the people and later when the ATM shutter was lifted in the presence of the police, the server of the ATM was found to be out of operation.
Unwilling to take a day off from office to withdraw cash on a week day, many people had gathered outside the Vijaya Bank ATM on a cold Sunday morning at Ranipur Mod. Purportedly, the ATM shutter had been kept down despite the availability of cash in the machine which irked the people waiting outside the ATM. The angry people blocked the busy road in the morning and started sloganeering against the Central Government. The police had to resort to lathi charge to disperse the people and later the ATM shutters were opened in the presence of the police only to find the server defunct.
Many people from laksar, Bahadrabad, Shyampur and other localities had queued up outside the ATM to withdraw cash from their bank accounts. With the dawn of the day the number of people in queue had crossed 300. Some people could withdraw cash from the machine but shortly afterwards the ATM server went down as a result of which the bank authorities downed the shutter of the ATM. Frustrated and annoyed, the people vented their anger by blocking the traffic on the main Haridwar-Jwalapur road. Soon the vehicles started queuing up both on Jwalapur and Haridwar sides.
The irked people started raising slogans against the Central Government. One of those waiting at the ATM, Mohan Kukreti told this correspondent, “What can be more pathetic than wasting our only weekly off standing in queue since morning to withdraw cashIJ. The ATM has cash but they have shut it down on account of some connectivity issue,” said Kukreti.
In the meanwhile on receiving information about the scenario, the Jwalapur police reached the site to resolve the traffic jam, resorting to lathi charge to disperse the angry people. “We asked the guard to raise open the ATM shutter and he announced that the server was not connected so the cash could not be withdrawn. After much pacifying, the people returned to their homes cashless,” said Jwalapur Kotwali sub inspector Nitin Rawat.