Shorter queues at banks in Indore, but ATM woes remain

Situation at banks across Indore on Friday eased to a great extent with people facing less hardship in withdrawing or depositing money following a cash crunch triggered by recall of old 500 and 1,000 banknotes on November 9. Some ATMs, however, are running dry.

Situation at banks across Indore on Friday eased to a great extent with people facing less hardship in withdrawing or depositing money following a cash crunch triggered by recall of old 500 and 1,000 banknotes on November 9. Some ATMs, however, are running dry.

A man takes out Rs 2000 currency note from an ATM in Indore on Friday. (Shankar Mourya/HT photo)

Sources said one reason for many ATMs still running dry could be that banks were focusing more on keeping enough cash with their branches then on ATMs. Bank officials, however, maintained that barring a few, ATMs were non-functional due to technical reasons.

“The banking operations at all our branches (in Indore) have now become normal. Most ATMs are also functional, although some could be non-functional due to technical reasons such as connectivity issues or some problem in the machinery. While demand-supply mismatch exists to some extent, there is no severe cash shortage,” State Bank of India (SBI) regional manager Virendra Kumar told HT.

Another official said there was huge rush on Tuesday when banks opened after three consecutive holidays but it reduced on Thursday and situation was almost normal at most private and public sector bank branches on Friday.

The central government has taken a series of measures to step up printing of new currency, especially ₹500.

As reported in HT, army is assisting employees of Bank Note Press in Dewas, near Indore, to tackle huge demand for currency following demonetisation.