Long queues at banks on day TWO also, additional staff deployed

Situation likely to continue till Tuesday; staff from bank headquarters asked to assist local branches in state
Crowds queuing up at a bank in Byatarayanpura to exchange their D500, D1,000 notes on Friday. Demonetised notes can be exchanged till December 30 | vinod kumar t
Crowds queuing up at a bank in Byatarayanpura to exchange their D500, D1,000 notes on Friday. Demonetised notes can be exchanged till December 30 | vinod kumar t

BENGALURU: For the second day in a row, long queues of people were seen in front of banks as people thronged them to exchange or deposit old notes. Bank authorities expect the situation to continue till Monday or Tuesday, before they resume normal operations.


Speaking to Express, M Mohan Reddy, convenor of the State Level Bankers’ Committee and General Manager of Syndicate Bank, urged people to be patient as they have time till December 30 to exchange the currency notes. There are more than 10,000 outlets where customers can do the same, he said.


Additional personnel deployed
Owing to the large crowds at banks, which had led to some altercations on Thursday, banks have decided to deploy additional personnel at bank branches across the state. 


“For instance, personnel from administrative offices, regional offices and others are being used to cater to customers. About 600-700 staff from our corporate headquarters and general manager’s office have been asked to assist at local branches,” Reddy said. 


Bank employees are also working overtime as this is like an emergency situation. “All the bank employees are working beyond work hours so that people in need can be served. Even the last man to enter the bank will be served,” he said. To a question, he agreed that it was difficult to cope with such an emergency situation.    


ATMs filled regularly
On complaints of empty ATMs, Reddy said that most of the ATMs are being filled by the authorities on a regular basis. “As of Friday, only `100 denominations were present in the ATMs. We expect to introduce `500 denominations to the machines in the coming days,” he said.


He said ATMs located close to the bank branches would not face any problem as most of them had in-house teams to reload the machines.


Depositing money
To a question, Reddy said that there have been reports of deposits to the tune of  `10 to `20 lakh from various parts of the state. “Somebody is depositing `10 lakh doesn’t mean that it is black money. Some people might earn that amount every month. However, we are keeping tabs of all such transactions, which will be reviewed by the Income Tax Department,” he said.


If the deposits are found to be beyond one’s income level, the depositors might attract penalty in the coming months, he added.  

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