Cash availability remains bleak ahead of deadline
With 6 days left for 50-day deadline, bankers claim it will take a few weeks before normal cash flow is restored.
Chennai: With just six days to go for the 50-day deadline set up for demonetisation, public including traders on Saturday complained that December has been a bad month for them without cash.
Bankers and traders went a step further saying that the situation looks bleak, as there are no signs of cash flow. “We just have six working days and there is an inadequate supply of currency to bankers. To my knowledge only 10 per cent of ATMs are dispensing cash in the denomination of Rs 2,000 and there is an acute shortage of Rs 500 notes. Under such circumstance it will take at least a few more weeks for normalcy to restore,” said a state bank manager in South Chennai adding that only state bank ATMs were dispensing Rs 500 notes.
“Many ATMs are still closed and the banks are being stringent with the cash withdrawal and there is no end to the queue,” said R. Sasi Kumar, who works as clerk in an advocate chamber at Madras high court. The sad part is that even the judiciary failed to entertain the pubic interest litigations filed seeking cancellation of demonitisation, he added.
“Most of the patients who come here request to make payment by card. However, when the bill amount is small, it is difficult for us to agree to the request. We had a patient who came in recently and was prescribed an injection. She asked for the option of payment for a bill of Rs 50. We had to deny it,” said S. Saravana kumar, a pharmacist in a private hospital.
