Majority ATMs shut, people panic

- Machines showed ‘no-operation’ boards
- Gold traders, commission agents indulge in hawala business

Nellore: People are facing difficulties with non-availability of lower denomination notes as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was providing limited quantity to banks. Customers are getting anxiety as ATM centres were kept open only for some time on Friday. Some ATMs have dispensed Rs 2,000 notes and others were shut down waiting for lower denomination notes. A banker said RBI has been sending very limited volume of lower denomination currency and the situation cannot come to normal immediately.

“We have received denomination of 100s worth Rs 10 lakh yesterday and today we are waiting for currency. So, we are allowing only deposits using their debit cards and withdrawals have been restricted. We are facing difficulty to manage the situation with huge requirement from customers,” said a SBI officer.

This has been the standard answer from many bankers. A senior officer from Indian Bank said it took around 15 minutes for distributing Rs 30 lakh of Rs 100 denomination notes on Friday. People expecting more crowds on Thursday, only few visited nationalised and private banks. The turnout was massive on Friday and they faced trouble to get lower denomination notes.

This pushed hawala business in many parts of the district, who were accepting the old notes at 20 to 30 per cent commission. Interestingly, some gold traders and commission agents started hawala business in city cashing the situation. A senior bank official said lower denomination notes were quite inadequate to meet the huge demand from the people. He said people have to struggle for next two weeks till lower denomination notes provided by the RBI according to the need.