The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Cash withdrawal limit up, but little change at ATMS
DEMONETISATION
TWO DAYS after the government’s demonetisation drive ended and the daily withdrawal limit at ATMS was increased from Rs 2,500 to Rs 4,500, there appeared to be little change on the ground — most ATMS were either out of cash or had not been calibrated to the new withdrawal limit. The Indian Express visited a few key markets to see how people are faring:
Seelampur
At a crowded market in Seelampur, two police officers stood near the grill doors of Central Bank of India, while civil defenceworkerstriedtoassistthe crowd outside. Sadaf Bano, who was waiting in the queue outside to make a deposit, said, “I do not knowhownetbankingworksand I have been waiting for the rush to dissipate for the past few weeks. But even with the 50-day period ending, it is still difficult to make deposits.”
Manager Irshad Ahmad Khan said the branch caters to approximately 4 lakh people in the area. “Earlier, we used to get about 600 peopleaday.nowwegetasmany as 1,000. This is the only branch in the area and the rush has not died down since the announcement,” he said.
On Monday, the branch gave out Rs 4,000 to savings account holders and Rs 10,000 to current account holders. “We have about 70,000 account holders and there is not enough cash available for everyone,” Khan said.
Lajpat Nagar
In south Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar central market, operations in banks had eased a bit. Urmil Kapoor (70) said, “The situation is a little better now. We have been withdrawing money via cheques so we are not very dependent on ATMS. We also get to know when money has been replenished in the machines in the evenings, so we queue up to withdraw.”
Some ATMS in the market have been empty for the last two days as the RBI is yet to replenish cash, said bank officials.
T R Kadam, chief manager of the SBI branch in Lajpat Nagar Central Market, said, “Cash will hopefully be replenished by evening. The government has not even recalibrated our ATMS from Rs 2,500 to Rs 4,500. But banks are a little relaxed because we have money. Right now, we are in a position to allow everyone to withdraw the maximum limit of Rs 24,000 or Rs 50,000 as per their requirement.”
Darya Ganj
Despite there being several ATMS, Darya Ganj market located in Old Delhi had few buyers as machines remained cashless. Shopkeepers complained that severalatmshadnotbeenrefilled even once since demonetisation was announced.
Gandhi Nagar
In Gandhi Nagar’s Monday bazaar, the lone functional ATM was witness to long queues. “There are about seven machines in this area. They were replenished with cash maybe twice in the last two months, but now the entire market depends on this one branch which runs out of cash in a couple of hours,” said Brij Nath, a shopkeeper.
He said that even at branches that do not have cash, people have been queuing up to make deposits or passbook entries.
Defence Colony
In Defence Colony’s C Block market, Bobby Kochhar, owner of Colonel’s Kababz, was mulling closing down a counter in Gurgaon because of huge losses. His employees salaries, he said, had been delayed by two weeks.
“My request for a chequebook has been pending with a bank for three weeks now. I have not been able to pay my staff because of this. The market is down and out, especially on Christmas and New Year’s Eve, with sales slumping by about 40 per cent,” he said.
Despite an increase in withdrawal limit, there appeared to be little change on the ground — most ATMS were either out of cash or had not been calibrated