Taking cognizance of the current cash crisis in the State, a meeting of State level Bankers Association (SlBC) was called on Thursday and a core group was formed to monitor cash status in banks on monthly basis.
It was also ensured during the meeting attended by senior officials of the banks operating in Jharkhand that the situation will get normalized within a week by pumping more cash in ATMs.
Officials of Reserve Bank of India, however, denied any cash crisis in the State, saying that only 11 per cent of the ATMs in the State were non-functional out of which 2 per cent out of order due to technical issues.
“Only 8 per cent of the 5700 ATMs in Jharkhand are not dispensing cash due to various reasons which could not be termed as cash crisis. According to officials records available with us, 89 per cent of the ATMs in the State are functional dispensing cash as per the requirement,” said Assistant General Manger of RBI in Jharkhand Rajesh Tiwari. Even if there is any problem of cash in the State, it will be sorted out very soon by pumping fresh cash from Patna RBI to banks in Jharkhand, he added.
looking at the reports from various sources, a meeting of SlBC was also called during which further plan of action was chalked out to deal with the situation. Banks were directed to keep their non-functional ATMs functional as soon as possible so that people does not get panicked.
“A core group was also formed at the state level to monitor situation of cash flow in banks on monthly basis,” said Tiwari. Steps were being taken by the RBI with the help of SlBC on war footing to deal with the situation following directions from the Government of India, he added.
When asked about the reasons which led to this crisis like situation in Bank ATMs, Tiwari attributed it to bank holidays for three days in a row which further led to logistic failure. He, however, accepted that there was a sudden demand which is being tried to be met and will take another one week to get it corrected.
Remarkably, people all over the State could be seen running from one ATM to another as most of them have gone cashless for the last few days and are cursing their banks for not being able to get their own heard earn money out of their banks.
Most of the banks which have gone out of cash are the ATMs of State Bank of India, the largest bank of the nation.