District co-op bank in Noida out of cash for 5 days, customers threaten protest

Over two lakh customers who have accounts with the District Cooperative Bank are apprehensive over their current situation as the bank branches have been out of cash for five days. They are mulling to hold a demonstration against the demonetisation move.

Over two lakh customers who have accounts with the District Cooperative Bank are apprehensive over their current situation as the bank branches have been out of cash for five days. They are mulling to hold a demonstration against the demonetisation move.

The account holders, mostly farmers and small traders, blamed the Central government for the problem. They said it is becoming impossible to conduct daily transactions, besides facing problems in procuring raw materials for farming. (Sunil Ghosh/HT)

The account holders, mostly farmers and small traders, blamed the Central government for the problem. They said it is becoming impossible to conduct daily transactions, besides facing problems in procuring raw materials for farming.

The two branches of the District Cooperative Bank in Noida are located at Mamura and Nithari.

“We have accounts in Nithari and Mamura branches, but both the branches have been out cash for the last six days. Bank managers are helpless and we are unable to withdraw cash. They give us the same excuse, that they are getting a low supply of cash, and do not provide further details,” said Sunil Yadav of Sector 70 in Noida said.

“We failed to get money even for marriage purpose despite completing the necessary formalities. We will not tolerate this situation any longer. Such mismanagement in the current situation will definitely lead to protests,” Yadav said.

The cash flow has been badly affected after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on November 14 directed cooperative banks not to accept the scrapped notes.

“We are not able to deposit cash that we have in old notes. We are pinning hopes on the Supreme Court and hope it brings us relief on Monday. Otherwise, we will lose hope in the system and this may also lead to protests,” said Jantar Singh, a resident of Sarfabad village.

“We will then be left with no option but to open an account with another bank to deposit these notes. Else, we will lose all our money,” Singh said.

District cooperative banks in Kerala had moved the Supreme Court last Tuesday against the directive banning them from exchanging the scrapped ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes. The case is scheduled for hearing in the apex court on Monday.

The two cooperative bank branches are getting an average ₹1-₹2 lakh per day, which is insufficient to fulfil the account holders’ demands.

The managers of the two branches said they have been reporting the situation to the general manager (GM) of the District Cooperative Bank daily.

“There are 33 branches under me in three districts— Gautam Budh Nagar, Hapur and Ghaziabad. We need a minimum ₹5 crore daily, but we get less than ₹1 crore from the RBI. We then distribute money among these branches. We are helpless and we try to convince customers of the actual situation. We are also concerned as our customers are opening accounts with other banks. We are losing the goodwill of customers,” UK Saraswat, general manager of the District Cooperative Bank, said.