In post demonisation, residents of North Delhi’s Wazirabad are finding it extremely difficult to withdraw cash from local ATMs because of hooligans.
Some locals lamented that for the last three days they noticed that 10-15 people, mostly students, were turning up at ATMs, forcing their way to withdraw cash first and even manhandling elderly and women when being stopped from jumping the queue.
A scuffle broke outside State Bank of India (SBI) ATM on Saturday after a few youths were stopped from forcibly entering the premises.
Pradeep Yadav, who runs a grocery shop at Wazirabad, said, "Once when we tried to stop them (rogue elements) from forcibly entering one ATM they attacked us with iron rods and blades and no one intervened. We could not do anything. In the crowd, one girl dared to call police that only reached the spot after the mobsters had left.
Residents, who were in the queue for hours outside the ATM, told The Pioneer that withdrawing money from ATMs has become an arduous task. “I was standing in the line for over an hour and then I saw these youths coming on bikes and barging in the ATM. I told them to wait in queue for their turn, on which they pushed me. Shockingly, nobody objected to it,” said Sarika Priyadarshni, a resident of Nehru Vihar.
Vikas Kumar — orginally from Haryana’s Hisar but currently living in Gopalpur village and who was in the queue on Saturday evening at the SBI's ATM — said, “Suddenly five people came and forcibly got inside to withdraw cash. Nobody said anything as they all are locals and we are outsiders. We are scared to complain against them as we do not want to get harmed."
As security guards at the ATMs are only seen when money is stacked in the evening, such incidents have gone unreported, said residents. local shopkeepers said even after bringing the incident to the notice of patrolling police personnel not a single policeman or a security guard was deployed at the ATM.
With little being done by the authorities to address the issue, some residents have decided to keep a vigil on the ATMs in the evening hours to avoid any untoward incidents.