Technical glitches, shortage of notes & lack of clarity exasperate customers who made beeline for banks
Kochi: Banks and post offices across the state witnessed heavy rush on Thursday as people in great numbers reached to exchange currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. Banks were shut on Wednesday to allow them to stock cash. But technical glitches, shortage of banknotes and lack of clarity exasperated customers, and heated arguments were seen at many places. In places like Thrissur police has been summoned to control the crowd in some of the bank branches. The rush was felt more in branches in rural and semi-urban areas.
“It took nearly two hours for me to get my transactions cleared as the bank did not have sufficient tellers to dispense cash,” said K.J. George, an NRI customer holidaying in Kochi. "The bank staff was cordial and kept their cool despite the rush." He also said that he was unable to withdraw money from his NRE account due to some technical glitches. In the main post office in Kozhikode, delay in the arrival of cash led to anxious moments in the forenoon session. The matter was resolved by afternoon and exchanging currency progressed smoothly.
The absence of enough denominations belonging to Rs 50 and Rs 100 was a major problem in Kottayam, said Aniyan Mathew, president of State Bank of Travancore Employees Union. “The banks had to give Rs 100 or Rs 50 rupee notes in exchange of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes and most of them were not having enough of the smaller denominations,” he added. “There was a heavy rush from the morning onwards,” said the manager of an SBI branch in Kottayam.
M.J. Paul, a retired sub-inspector who reached Canara Bank at Kanjikuzhy waited for nearly four hours before he could get his Rs 4,000. “I waited till 2 pm for getting my money,” he said. Rajeev Kumaran, the manager of the Kanjikuzhy branch, said around 600 persons reached the bank for exchanging currency and another 150 for depositing the money. In Alappuzha, some banks opened additional counters.
"We had foreseen the possibility of a heavy rush and arranged extra counters," said a bank official. “Mainly traders and business persons approached the bank in the morning,” said another official. According to him, the rush and anxiety are likely to thin down in the coming days, and by Monday the operations will come back to the normal pace. The fish vendors in Kollam, however, stayed away from the rush as they accepted the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes without hesitation.
