ATMs run out of cash; Chaos, long queues continue at banks

Chaotic scenes and seemingly never-ending queues can still be seen outside banks and ATMs as people hustled to get valid currency notes for meeting their daily expenses after the Centre last week demonetised the old higher value bills.

Cash-strapped people were seen waiting in frustration as most of the cash dispensing machines ran out of cash within hours after being stocked, while thousands of ATMs are still not functional. Adding to the customer woes, there have been reports of bank servers facing technical glitches.

The Centre on November 8 had banned the use of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes in a bid to curb black money and sources of terror funding.

Even ATMs at the Finance Ministry and Parliament House witnessed long queues with average waiting time of an hour.

It may take two more weeks before ATMs start dispensing new high-value Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes. Currently, they are mainly dispensing Rs 100 notes.

More and more people across the country are complaining about problems with regard to their daily basic needs as local stores have stopped lending goods and other essential items on credit.

Grappling with unending queues and frayed tempers in banks and to check operation of syndicates, the government yesterday decided to introduce a system of marking customers exchanging defunct currency notes with indelible ink from today onwards in major metro cities.

This, according to the government, would prevent syndicates and certain kind of people coming to a branch again and again and misusing the note-exchange facility.