Long queues before banks as ATMs are dry

The government's sudden decision to withdraw Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes and shortage of lesser-denomination notes caused a lot of inconvenience to the people here today.
Long queues were witnessed in front of banks as ATMs did not have cash.
"We are in the process of offloading and again loading ATMs with cash and the situation will start normalising by evening," State Level Bankers Committee Convener and Central Bank of India's field general manager Ajay Vyas told PTI.
"It is a long process and takes time. But I am getting reports every half-an-hour that ATMs are being loaded and are dispensing money," he said, adding "things would start normalising by evening."

The ATMs are dispensing only Rs 100 notes at present, he said.
However, cash-strapped customers had a harrowing experience withdrawing money.

K P Saxena, a city resident, said, "We stood in queue for almost an hour to replace the banned currency with new notes. The process is taking lot of time and new currency is not being provided."
Another person said he could withdraw Rs 5,000 from a Bank of India branch fairly quickly. But he was disappointed that he got the entire amount in Rs 100 notes and not in the new currency notes.
Those who went to ATM centres were sorely disappointed as these machines had no cash in most places.

State Bank of India's Deputy General Manager Rajiv Kumar said it will take at least two days for the situation to get normal.
"One fourth of SBI ATMs have started functioning and the remaining will get fully functional in two days," he added.