WARANGAL: The ghost of demonetisation has once again returned to haunt the people. Many ATMs across northern Telangana are again running dry for the past few days. With Sankranti round the corner, people are finding it difficult to make basic purchases.
It is learnt that the banks are not getting enough deposits since last two months, following which it was not able to keep cash in the ATMs. Besides, the Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill has also created some confusion among people during the last couple of months. Many depositors started withdrawing their money.
While customers of banks lament that the ATMs have run out of cash and the banks are giving them limited cash on the plea of shortage, the bankers admit there is a shortage but claim the situation would return to normalcy soon.
According to an SBI official of Nakkalgutta branch in Hanamkonda, the branch was getting very less cash from its currency chest and they were running the business depending on the cash availability.
“We are getting very less cash from our chest in Hyderabad and it is getting over within a few minutes. We are allowing withdrawal of cash according to availability,” he said.
Almost all the ATMs in Warangal city have gone dry. “I have been running from one ATM to another since morning but all in vain as there is no cash,” said C Satish Reddy, an employee.
Even in banks the customers were not allowed to withdraw more than `5,000 and that too if cash was available. “I went to bank to with draw `20,000 to make purchases for Sankranti festival but they gave me just `5,000,” another person G Ravikiran lamented.
Similar situation is prevailing in the erstwhile districts of Adilabad, Karimnagar and Khammam. The ‘no cash’ days seem to be prevailing in the districts where people can only use the ATMs to check balance.
There are more than 100 ATMs in Khammam town and its surrounding areas and almost all of them are dry. It is learnt that since people were anticipating cash shortage before Sankranti, a large number of them withdrew cash a week ago to avoid the problem.
People in Adilabad are also facing the problem as traders are not accepting cards and insisting on cash transactions. “Many traders were demanding cash stating that PoS machines are not working,” stated Ravinder Rao, a customer . Only two ATMs are functioning in Adilabad town and people were seen standing in long queues for hours to withdraw money. The situation is similar in Karimnagar where several ATMs have downed their shutters due to non-availability of cash.