Day after holiday, queues are back, banks go extra mile

After the one-day banking holiday, people were back at queues at bank branches here since early morning to exchange currency notes even as authorities put in place special arrangements for better access to cash.
A State Bank of India official said the rush is more at the branches compared with ATMs and accordingly, sheds have been put up.
"Arrangements for sheds have been made at banks for convenience of customers," the officials said.
He assured them that the new notes in denomination of 500 and 2,000 will be made available at ATMs soon.
Axis Bank branch banking Head Sanjay Silas said all the 114 branches of the bank in Rajasthan are functioning as per RBI guidelines and facilities for customers are being provided so that they face no problem.

"It was a challenging task, but now things are comparatively at ease. There are separate queues for elderly people, and other arrangements for water and others are also there at the branches," he said.
People had queued up since morning to exchange old defunct notes of 500 and 1,000 with the new ones of 500 and 2,000.