With Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) going dry and banks suffering a massive cash crunch across the country, Friday witnessed all-round chaos as millions of people came out to withdraw money and exchange or deposit their scrapped high value currency notes.
The mad scramble turned tragic when two persons died in separate incidents in Maharashtra and Kerala.
Anxious and agitated people faced a harrowing time for the second consecutive day across the country and in the national Capital as they stood in long queues for hours outside banks to exchange their Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes with new ones.
With most of the ATMs tanking as they were not loaded with the software required to deal with the new Rs 2,000 notes, the troubles of the people were compounded as they did not get cash despite standing outside ATM booths for hours.
Experts feel that it could take a while before the problems can be resolved. The new notes are smaller in dimension and engineers are required to reconfigure all the 200,000 ATMs in the country to deliver the new notes. This is expected to take time. Since thousands of ATMs cannot deal in the new Rs 2,000 notes, they have to be stocked with smaller denomination notes. Because of this, each of these ATMs can stock only Rs 10 lakh instead of their capacity to hold Rs 50 lakh.
The situation in the Capital was so grim that the Delhi Police posted over 3,400 men and officers along with the Central Paramilitary Forces to manage crowds as skirmishes were reported from several places. As many as 200 Quick Reaction Teams were also deployed in and around ATMs and banks across the city.
In Mumbai’s Mulund area, Vishwanath Vartak, 73, who had been standing in a queue for hours at an SBI branch to exchange currency notes, collapsed and died on the spot. Though he was rushed to hospital by some people he was declared dead before admission, police said.
In another incident, a 48-year-old man, who had come to deposit Rs 5 lakh worth of scrapped high denomination notes in a bank in Thalassery in Kerala, died after he fell from the second floor of the building. Unni, a Kerala State Electricity Board employee, was filling the necessary forms to deposit the amount in the State Bank of Travancore’s branch, when the mishap occurred due to the rush, police said quoting preliminary information.
In Delhi, people were in for a shock when they found that many of the ATMs were not operative despite the announcement made by the Centre on November 8 that they would be operational from Friday, following a two-day closure. Many of those who had converged at the ATMS early in the morning returned empty handed as they were told by security guards that the machines had not been stocked up with cash.
“I had woken up at 4 am hoping that I would withdraw money from an ATM located nearby, but I was in for a rude shock as I found that the ATM didn’t have any cash,” said IT professional, Sukesh Jain.
“I had been saving, but it wasn’t of any use as all of it was in Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations. My only hope after surviving two days without cash was that the ATMs would be operational from today, but owing to many of the ATMs being closed, I had to borrow money from my neighbours,” said Sunita Dass, a homemaker.
Apart from ATMs, serpentine queues were witnessed at banks across the city as people thronged to exchange Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes for new currency. In many areas, people were seen queuing up outside banks even before they opened for business.
Queues outside banks grew longer as more people arrived and in the end some of the banks even ran out of cash. “There is an acute shortage of cash as old notes are no longer useable. I need to go to my office at Nehru Place but I have joined the queue as I have no cash and it’s getting difficult to survive solely through online shopping,” said IT executive Radhika who queued up outside a bank in laxmi Nagar in East Delhi.
Major markets and shopping complexes reported marginal trading due to shortage of cash. Traders in various markets complained that either there were no customers and those who were coming to buy things were bringing Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes which are “useless” now.
Transporters in the city also expressed concerns that the plying of trucks on the roads will be hit soon as cash is not available in adequate quantity in the market.
PTI adds: Ajeet Singh, a media professional in Mumbai, said when he went to an ATM in suburban Andheri, he found it closed and was told by a bank executive to come after an hour or two.
“I was told that the bank has not received the money yet and it would start exchanging at 4 pm only,” he said.
After finding some ATMs in Mumbai not dispensing cash, Charles Asirvatham, an executive of a Malaysia-based company, took to Twitter to express his anguish.
“After completing my morning walk, I went to an ICICI ATM around 7 am on Boring Road roundabout but it was closed. One of the guards told me that the ATM was to be replenished with cash in the night but the process could not be completed, hence it was not dispensing money,” said Ajay Kumar, a resident of Anandpuri area in Patna.
A youth was arrested by Odisha police when he was trying to deposit fake currency in a bank at Khurda town near Bhubaneswar amid the rush of customers.
Sumit Kumar Tudu, a resident of Kendrapara district, was trying to deposit Rs 2.5 lakh at the SBI branch at Khurda town.
“We found Rs 47,000 fake currency notes in the bundle containing Rs 2.5 lakh,” SBI in-charge, Khurda, Deba Prasad Kanhar said, adding the bank authorities informed the police about it. Forty-two of the notes being deposited by him were found to be fake currency of Rs 1,000 denomination and remaining 10 pieces of duplicate Rs 500 denomination, police said. The youth claimed to be the son of a bank officer and said the money belonged to his father. He was told to deposit the amount in his father’s account.