Gurgaon admin cracks the whip on slow calibration of ATMs

District authorities are fearful that non-functional ATMs could worsen the situation

Given the chaos at banks that are running short on cash, district authorities are fearful that non-functional ATMs could worsen the situation.

District authorities are fearful that non-functional ATMs could worsen the situation. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

Making it clear to the banks that ATMs need to be made functional at the earliest, Vinay Partap Singh, additional deputy commissioner, Gurgaon, has asked the lead bank manager to send letters to those banks which have not calibrated ATMs.

The public sector banks are lagging behind in this initiative and this was flagged by the district administration on Friday.

Major banks who have faltered on this count include Allahabad Bank (all nine ATMs not calibrated ), Andhra Bank (one of 15 ATMs caliberated), Bank of Baroda (all 17 ATMs not calibrated), Bank of Maharashtra ( all eight ATMs not calibrated), Corporation Bank (one of 23 ATMs calibrated) and IDBI (four of 18 ATMs calibrated). Likewise, a number of PSUs have not been able to get the ATMs calibrated.

“There is a need for banks to take the ATM calibration seriously and ensure these are made functional at the earliest. The problem of cash crunch will be resolved and the RBI has asked us to rationalize the distribution of cash but the ATMs need to work,” Singh told bankers at a meeting in the Mini Secretariat.

Singh also asked the bank head offices to take cognizance of Gurgaon’s large economy and business needs and decide the cash distribution accordingly. “There is a large corporate and industrial presence here and as such more cash transaction happen here as compared to the rest of the districts. So bankers need to take a holistic view of things rather than strictly following the book,” he said.