Collector swings into action

​Visakhapatnam: Collector Praveen Kumar, who resumed duties on Saturday night after a long leave, swung into action by making field visits to various bank branches and ATMs in the city on Sunday and held meetings with SBI DGM Ajay Kumar Pandit and Andhra Bank DGM B Vijay Lakshmi about the present state of affairs with regard to the exchange and deposits of high denomination notes.

Praveen Kumar, who visited various bank branches and ATMs, enquired about the problems being faced by the customers and infused confidence by apprising the steps taken by the government and the banks to address the serious issue.

Initially, the Collector called on the SBI DGM Ajay Kumar Pandit, who told him that a sum of Rs 217 crore, has been paid in exchange of big notes and a sum of Rs 620 crore has been deposited by customers up to Saturday.

The DGM felt with the loading of Rs 100 currency notes in ATMS, the major problem of change would be solved. Though they were supplying cash through 167 SBI ATMs functioning as against the total of 220, the total cash was being emptied in no time and about five to six hours time is needed to refill the cash in ATMs.

Adding to this, it may take more time to load Rs 500 note bundles in the ATMs due to technical reasons, he added. The Collector and the DGM later visited the SBI branch at the Old Jail Road and spoke to the people stranded in the queue lines and the bank staff.

Branch manager told the Collector that responding to the huge rush of customers, more counters were opened and the latter appealed to the bank employees to cooperate with the customers.

Later, Praveen Kumar visited Andhra Bank Zonal Office, Seetammadhara and spoke to bank DGM Vijaylakshmi who informed that they have so far disbursed a sum of Rs 15 crore towards payments to customers and Rs 18 crore was paid in exchange of big notes so far while the bank deposits touched Rs 226 crore. The DGM further said in all their 60 ATMs, they were loading Rs 5 lakh cash in each ATM daily. During his interaction with the customers, Praveen Kumar assured that the scarcity of Rs 100 notes would be solved in a couple of days.

Later, Collector told reporters that the district administration will also cooperate with the banks in providing drinking water and shelter for customers standing in queue lines and there is no scarcity of money in loading ATMs, but the problem is once it was emptied, it may take five to six hours to refill the cash.

As per the Central government’s directive, RTC, railways, airlines and hospitals should accept Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes failing which criminal cases will be registered.

We have asked the revenue divisional officers and tahsildars to make field visits and submit reports from time to time. We are also holding District Consultative Committee meeting on Monday with all the bankers to assess how best the problems could be solved,” he said.