Chennai: A majority of the ATMs continued to be shut for the fifth day, though all banks upped their shutters despite it being Sunday as ATMs downed their shutters, long, serpentine queues were seen at branches of every bank. Some people who visited banks to exchange or deposit the scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes also complained of poor customer service, making the whole process, a time consuming affair, though a few others took to twitter to praise the bank managers for 'pleasant experience'
Even though the situation was comparatively better in a few private banks, people were in a spot due to server issues. Customers of ICICI bank were agitated on Sunday afternoon as the bank shut its monetary operations at 2 pm, disappointing hundreds of people.
A consumer at Ashok Pillar said, “Today (Sunday) is the last day to pay my daughter's college fees and I have no idea of how to do it now. It is unfortunate that the bank has failed to inform the customers beforehand about it.”
All the branches of ICICI bank were deputed with additional police personnel to stop any agitation from the customers. A bank official, explaining the issue said, “Our server was down and we did not expect it. Transactions can be continued from Monday morning.”
Being a holiday, the crowd was almost double that of any other day, the situation which made banks and ATMs run out of cash within hours of starting their operations. S. Bhaskaran of Ullagaram who visited City Union Bank at Madipakkam said that he could not withdraw money as the bank became cashless in no time. “At 12.30 in the afternoon, when the bank officials said that they have no money, I was shattered. I dont have enough money to run the family now,” he said in a distressed tone.
While the arterial roads in the city are deserted, it is surprising that the pitch-dark interior lanes are crowded, with desperate people trying to withdraw money.
“People are now locating ATM centres in interior roads. I have never seen the ATM on Medavakkam Main road near Adambakkam so crowded before,” added Bhaskaran.
Meanwhile, special camps organised by the Indian Overseas bank have been a hit and people demand other banks also set up similar ones to reduce their
ordeal.
Withdrawal of Rs 2,000 note just rumour
Are you worried after receiving a WhatsApp message that said the new Rs 2,000 notes would be withdrawn again due to an error? Hold your breath. It is just a rumour.
Social networking sites Facebook and micro-blogging site Twitter was abuzz with 'news' that the new notes would be withdrawn as “Two Thousand Rupees” is spelt wrong.
As “don hazaar rupaiye” is written in Devanagari script twice, people assumed the error was a spelling mistake in Hindi. The confusion arose because Marathi and Konkani also use Devanagari script. But the rumourmongers did not rest.
They circulated messages on WhatsApp warning people that Rs 2,000 notes being issued will be withdrawn.
However, government sources said there was no error in the new notes. Another controversy also er-upted with a few Urdu scholars alleging that “Two Thousand Rupees” was written in the wrong way, but other scholars said there was nothing wrong in the way it was written.
