With banks taking off on Sunday, people in the national Capital continued to face shortage of currency. The second Sunday post demonetisation saw banks being closed and most of the ATMs running dry. Some ATMs did function but the machines soon developed snags much to the disappointment of those waiting in the queue for their turn. Delhi Police personnel were deployed around ATMs to manage crowds and also ensure that no skirmish took place.
In many areas, people, in desperate need of short change, ran from one ATM to the other, with a few managing to withdraw and the rest left dejected as machines emptied out before their turn.
At places, queues formed up within minutes of news spreading word of mouth that cash was being dispensed at a particular ATM.
“I went looking for cash at an ATM in Central Delhi. As soon as I entered the details, there was deduction from my account but the machine did not disburse any cash,” said Jheelum Mitra, an IT professional.
On weekdays, the Delhi Police had deployed about 12,000 personnel outside banks and ATMs to manage crowd.
Banks have been serving only their respective customers and are not exchanging the old Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes from customers of other banks since Saturday.
However, this restriction was not applicable on senior citizens on Sunday as they were allowed to visit any bank branch to exchange old defunct currency notes. The exchange limit has already been less than halved to Rs2,000 to ease some pressure on cash demand.