There was partial relief for people in North Delhi area on Thursday where banks functioned without chaos. Most banks have started implementing the new plan to apply indelible ink on the right index finger of the customers to curb frequent exchange of old currency.
A few banks were seen open even after cash was finished. A senior Canara Bank official said, “We have distributed token numbers to customers who wait in the queue and decided to extend working hours for those who wanted to deposit money with token number.”
Banks around Chandni Chowk area such as Oriental Bank of Commerce, Yes bank, Dena bank dealt with hundreds of customers and all the cash was over even before 2 pm.
However, indelible ink was not available with most of the branches. Senior officials of Oriental Bank of Commerce on the condition of anonymity told The Pioneer that they are in the process to arrange it as soon as possible but inking people on this scale will be difficult for us as all our employees are busy in managing crowd.
To ease the problems of people standing in queues for hours, some social workers, including shopkeepers distributed water bottles, offered tea and eatables. Nitin Desai, a college student and a part time employee with a real estate company, said more services should be started in order to ease the pain of those who cannot stand in queues for long due to health ailment.
“We are young and can stand in queue for a few hours to support the cause of the decision taken by the Government but what about those who are differently-abledIJ These factors should be taken into consideration and some alternatives should be taken to reduce the suffering of the people,” said Patel, who was waiting for his turn outside the State Bank of Patiyala at Daryaganj.
Siddarth Mishra, former engineer with DRDO, said he was waiting outside Dena bank as the segregated lines moved in an organised manner. “There is one line each for those who want to withdraw cash, deposit cash and for senior citizens. Women were here given entry without queue as there are only a few women standing outside the branch. Earlier, the queues were disorderly but today, the situation is better here and easy for everyone to get fair chance to exchange their money,” said Mishra.
“ATMs ran out of cash within a few hours and I had no option except searching for other ATM in Delhi University area and luckily got an ATM of State Bank of India at Nirankari Colony where a few students were in queue. Finally I took out the money,” said Mishra.
“Today's condition is definitely better than last few days. Even after some ATMs were dried up, people waited patiently to withdraw cash,” said Rama Bharti, student of School of Open learning, Delhi University, who was waiting in a line outside a Cooperation Bank ATM in New Delhi.