KOCHI: A full month has passed after Prime Minister Narendra Modi junked Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes and a quick visit to ATMs across the city find most either dry or woefully short of cash. Team Express visited 92 ATMs across the city, of which only 46 ATMs were functional, though barely. The other 46 stood abandoned with no sign of life in the vicinity.
Of the 46 functional ATMs, things were far from normal, when benchmarked against the pre-November 8 days. Only five ATMs had Rs 100 denomination notes and another five Rs 500 denomination notes. The remaining 36 ATMs had only Rs 2000 denomination notes, reflecting a larger reality across the state, perhaps the country.
Among the ATMs that provided a full bouquet of currencies were those of HDFC Bank and Bank of Baroda, Kakkanad, South Indian Bank, Vyttila Indus Ind Bank, Kaloor and HDFC Bank Palarivattom. The team also found that out of 46 non-functional ATMs, as many as 16 were out of service.
The busy hubs covered by Team Express included Edappally, Kacheripady, Kadavanthra, Kakkanad, Kaloor, Marine Drive, Menaka, MG Road, Padma Jn, Palarivattom, Panampilly Nagar, Pullepady and Vyttila.
It was also found that the number of takers for Rs 2,000 was quite low. “Only 2000 rupee notes are available at most of the ATMs. It’s very difficult to cope with the daily limit of Rs 2500. There is often now way of swiping debit/ credit cards while purchasing vegetables, meat, fish etc,” said Roshan Mathew, a private sector employee.
“This ATM has been out of cash for the past two days, there’s no cash in the bank or the main head office. The 500 rupee note has not come yet,” confided one ATM security guard.
Bank officers too admitted things were not too rosy. “The ATMs often run dry within no time after they’re filled. The real issue now is after withdrawing money people seem to be keeping it with them, thus blocking their circulation in the market,” said a senior officer at SBT, who didn’t wish to be named.