Angst against banks in AP

Vijayawada: Banks are seemingly caught in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘war on cash’, bearing the brunt of the cash-starved people across the state.

When the demand-supply theory strikingly failed to work in currency circulation, banks have become a soft target of people’s anger.

The statements of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu blaming the bankers for their ‘failure’ to rise to the occasion and address the currency needs of the people seem prompting the angry mobs to turn their ire against the banks.

A commercial bank at Kondepi in Prakasam district was attacked by customers who lost their cool after waiting for several hours agonizingly for withdrawal of cash from their accounts.

A police force was deployed to restore order. Similar violent scenes were witnessed in Amaravati and Prattipadu in Guntur district on Tuesday.

According to reports reaching from the district centres, the banks and ATMs continue to be flooded with hordes of customers in the fond hope of getting their turn to receive cash.

To quote a bank manager from the capital region, situation is likely to become more volatile in the days to come, making banks vulnerable to violent attacks as there appear no signs of the RBI making effective measures to tide over the cash crisis.

Tension gripped the bankers all over the state on Wednesday on the eve of disbursal of salaries to employees and pensions to retired personnel scheduled on December 1.

Inquiries revealed that the bankers have planned to make part-payments at the rate of Rs 10,000 per employee. APNGOs Association president P Ashok Babu said the association has requested to open cash counters at Gollapudi on the city outskirts for making the task of cash withdrawal easy for the NGOs and the Class IV employees.

The bankers squarely blamed it on the RBI for failing to meet the currency requirements since the PM’s surgical strike against the black money.

A leading PSU bank manager in Tirupati has received Rs 20 lakh from the bank chest as against his requirement of Rs 80 lakh. “It has become literally a herculean task to cope with the situation,” he told The Hans India on condition of anonymity.

“Our branch normally requires Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 2 crore daily in the first ten days of the month. Given the present condition, I doubt whether I will get at least 50 percent of the required amount,” he said.

Sources said Indian Bank with 80 branches in Vijayawada Zone falling under Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam districts has received Rs 40 crore in the last one week from the RBI over the indent raised for Rs 200 crore.

The bankers said that the RBI’s failure to replenish the monetary system to the extent to which the banned higher value notes has been withdrawn.

For instance, all the private and nationalised banks have accepted the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes with a total value of 35,000 crore in the form of deposits and remittances since the demonitisation became effective. They have received only Rs 10,000 crore so far, it is said.

For instance, take the case of Guntur, different sections of customers have deposited Rs 8,000 crore in various banks in the district after demonetisation of Rs 1,000, Rs 500 currency notes in 800 branches of 27 banks. But the RBI so far supplied only Rs 1,000 crore.

The bankers in Prakasam district have received Rs 2,400 crore in the form of deposits from the people mostly in higher value denominations and disbursed Rs 600 crore through withdrawals. There has obviously resulted in a worst-ever currency crunch.

“Had the RBI succeeded in replacing the volume of high-value currency notes withdrawn from the system, the liquidity crisis would have been averted,” commented a senior bank official.

There is a huge gap between demand and flow of cash from the RBI which ranges between 20 per cent and 30 per cent. Therefore, the ground realities suggest that there appears little measures from the RBI to relieve the ‘surgical’ pain of the man on the street.