People suffer as banks, ATMs go cashless in Nizamabad

​Nizamabad: The adverse impact due to the demonetisation of the high valued currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 on November 8 last year by the Centre have again come to haunt the people of the district. They have again started facing hardships due to the non-availability of liquid cash, which they faced three months ago.

They are forced to stand in serpentine queues to get some small change. At the ATM centres, they are greeted by the ‘No Cash’ sign boards. Even several banks in the town have gone cashless as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is not supplying them currency notes.

There are a total of 366 banks in both Nizamabad and Kamareddy districts and 392 ATM centres within their purview. However, as cash is not available, these ATM centres are kept closed most of the time. As a result, people are forced to run around banks to withdraw money. The bank officials have capped a limit to the withdrawal of cash.

The RBI used to sanction Rs 200 crore to the two districts every month for carrying out transactions and distributing them to the customers though banks and ATMs. But as the supplies have stopped, the ATM centres have been shut down. Moreover, cash is not available even in private banks.

Speaking to The Hans India here on Thursday, some of the managers of the banks said that they would not be in a position to supply cash till the RBI supplies the currency notes to them. Till then, their customers have to face problems due to the cash crunch, they added.

Some of the people bemoaned that they were finding it difficult to get cash for emergency medical purposes. Though the educated people are able to sue their debit and credit cards and get their transactions done online, the illiterate people are facing immense hardships as they do not know the methods of digital transactions.

They expressed the hope that the Union Government, the State government and the RBI take some steps to arrange the cash and mitigate their sufferings.