E-Paper
Cash rush on, people make a beeline for banks, ATMs in Chandigarh
Residents continued to make beeline for banks across the city to deposit discontinued currency notes and withdraw notes of smaller denomination on Friday as well, three days after the central government pulled Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes out of circulation.
Residents continued to make beeline for banks across the city to deposit discontinued currency notes and withdraw notes of smaller denomination on Friday as well, three days after the central government pulled Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes out of circulation.
Rush at the banks was double the one witnessed on Thursday.
People could be seen queuing outside the ATMs in various markets as early as 8am, though many ATMs were operational by afternoon.
Not all banks could stock their ATMs with cash, resulting in harassment to people.
ATMs of Bank of India were not functional. Bank officials said t they did not receive enough cash from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). “Our ATMs will be functional from tomorrow onwards,” said a BoI official.
“I rushed to ATM in the morning as I had to deposit fee at my college for some project, but there was no money. I again visited the ATM at 3pm and stood in a long queue, but the machine went out of money by the time my turn came,” said Reena Gupta, a college student.
People were seen losing calm as well. Elderly people were seen standing in long queues to collect money.
“It is very suffocating inside the bank. I am standing in the queue for an hour and have now started feeling sick,” said an elderly woman at a bank in Sector 17.
“We attended to more than 900 people. Majority of the people were from eastern states,” said another BoI official.
Many government banks functioned till 7pm.
