Recalibration of ATMs across Bengal to take 10 more days

Sources say that government had communicated that the agriculture sector, particularly potato farmers, was facing acute crisis due to cash crunch

Recalibration of all ATMs across West Bengal would take another 10 days and so far only 30% of these have been modified for new currency notes, the state government was informed on Wednesday by RBI and other bank officials.

After a review meeting with RBI and senior bank officials held by chief secretary Basudeb Banerjee here, government sources said that "the entire situation has been reviewed and things are not normal".

The sources said the government had communicated that the agriculture sector, particularly potato farmers, was facing acute crisis due to cash crunch.

"The rural areas are facing problems. This has been informed by a team of central government officials who had toured Hooghly, Burdwan and other districts," a source said.

"We have particularly emphasised on the issue of Rs 500 currency notes which are in short supply," the source said.

The meeting was attended by regional director of RBI Rekha Warriar, CGM of currency distribution G N Rath of RBI, CMDs of UBI, Allahabad Bank and UCO Bank and other bank officials, regional director of Nabard and other state government officials.

There are nearly 10,000 ATMs in the state, of which 3,500 are of SBI and another 5,000 belonging to Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank.

The rest were owned by other banks.