Banks back to work after three-day break, so are queues

Long queues of customers were seen outside banks which today opened after a three-day break as people lined up to withdraw cash for daily expenses with most ATMs running dry in the metropolis.
People thronged the banks since morning, some of them even standing in queue as early as 6 o'clock, to access their funds, over a month after the Centre's demonetisation drive triggered a huge cash crisis.
Ever since the November 8 note ban announcement, this was the first time banks were closed for three consecutive days. December 10 was second Saturday, December 11 Sunday and on December 12 banks were closed on account of Milad-un-Nabi (Prophet Mohammed's birthday).

However, several customers claimed that banks were implementing cash rationing on their own and not allowing them to withdraw the amount permitted by the government.
Mustafa Sheikh, a trader from suburban Ghatkopar, said, "We were expecting to get full permissible (weekly) amount of Rs 24,000 today, but my bank gave me only Rs 10,000 and that too after a long wait in the queue."
He held RBI responsible for the liquidity crunch even a month after scrapping of the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

"This is not the fault of banks. They are not going to give you cash from their own pockets. They can give only if RBI supplies currency," he remarked.

Another businessman Alok Jadhav, a resident of Santacruz, appeared pessimistic about the cash shortage getting solved anytime soon.
"Now it's certain this crisis is going to persist not for weeks, but for months or even years. It seems the government wants to forcefully implement the concept of cashless economy," Jadhav said.
A senior citizen, Radheshyam Gupta, found no chair for himself at a bank in Grant Road, South Mumbai and returned home empty handed after being in queue in half an hour.
He said, "Not only me but so many other people were standing in queue since morning to ensure they got their money as ATMs were not dispensing cash and banks were closed for three days."

The situation at bank branches has not improved as ATMs are still not dispensing adequate cash despite being re-calibrated for new currency notes.
Meanwhile, RBI today said the money that various banks have issued through their counters and ATMs since November 10 and up to December 10 stood at Rs 4.61 trillion.
"The entire system is continuously gearing up for supporting the circulation of notes in the hands of the public. Daily, we are issuing more and more notes, getting it printed and issuing it and this will be a continuous affair," said RBI Deputy Governor R Gandhi.