It was all mess and no money at ATMs

The ATM of Catholic Syrian Bank close to the Collectorate was closed due to unavailability of cash. “It will be opened on Saturday only if we get money,” the branch manager said. At some ATMs people could only deposit cash. “I availed leave to withdraw money as I knew it would be a time-consuming process,” said R. Hema of Saibaba Colony. Queues outside banks and ATMs are expected to be longer this weekend as many would want to withdraw cash. It is feared that things would worsen when industries deposit or have to pay weekly wages as cash to the labourers on Saturday.

Retailers too had a tough time as wholesalers who accepted the Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes over the last two days refused to supply goods against on Friday. This was because many such notes were piled up at their end. Some public as well as private sector banks made optimum use of the opportunity to reach out to the masses outside the banks and ATM centers by putting out colourful banners to advertise their schemes.

Despite an announcement that all ATMs would be opened on Friday, only a select banks opted to open their kiosk and the public kept on reaching out to the machines right from the morning. There were serpentine queues at the banks and ATMs, which opened after two days but many ATMs ran out of cash in just a couple of hours despite the fact that the customers were allowed to draw only a minimum amount. Most of the machines were equipped to tender Rs 100 notes and Rs 50. Meanwhile banks such as Axis bank which had announced that the customers can use the ATMs from Friday earlier, kept their kiosks closed. A few nationalised banks like SBI, Canara bank and Indian bank ATMs were open, but by 2 pm, most of their ATMs ran out of cash. Through there were several machines kept at the main branch of SBI at Cantonment, people had to stand for more than four hours in long queues to withdraw the amount. From Friday, customers are allowed to withdraw up to Rs 2,000 per day from ATMs till November 18. The withdrawal limit will be raised to Rs 4,000 per day per card from November 19, 2016. Meanwhile, there was a heavy rush at the Head Post office to change the old denominations. But in a few post offices including the one in the Ponmalai Railway colony, the public had to wait till 1.30 pm for exchange of notes.

With demonetisation of Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 500 notes, sale of meat has dropped drastically. People see it as an expensive commodity now. It is because their purchase power has been limited due to difficulty in withdrawing money from banks and ATMs. Many shops remained closed as they would be incurring a loss by paying wages for their labourers.

President of the Kongu District Beef Merchants Association E.E. Ismail who has been in the business for more than three decades said his shop in the city sold a record low 5 kg on Thursday. “On any lean day, we easily sell more than 50 kg. There are 300 beef shops in the city. Everyone has been doing only 5 - 15 per cent business over the last three days,” he said. Unable to give change, beef traders are taking the Rs. 500 notes and are promising to give change when normalcy returns. Wholesale sea fish seller Salam’s family has been in this business for nearly 58 years. “We accepted the Rs. 500 notes on Wednesday and sold fish as most of them are loyal customers for decades. Sale has still gone down by 40 - 50 per cent,” he said. There is no big impact on the wholesale supply to hotels as they continue with the regular orders. “They usually make their payments through cheque once a month,” he added. P. Mahaboob Basha of Sungam, who runs a leading mutton and chicken outlet in that locality, said the number of customers has gone down drastically. “Even if they buy, it is only in small quantities. We used to sell 8 - 10 goats a day. This has come down by 50 per cent,” he said. He adds that compared to mutton, sale of chicken is not badly hit. “We used to sell 350 to 400 chicken a day and now we are selling around 250. Consumers prefer 3 kg chicken for Rs. 480 in the place of 1 kg mutton, which costs the same,” he said. Basha added that they are also unable to deny credit to loyal customers.

A section of traffic rule violators heave a temporary sigh of relief. Thanks to demonetisation, they are not fleeced by police personnel. Considering the difficulties of the common man due to demonetisation and considering the difficulties they would face in giving balance for collecting fines from traffic rules violators, the Coimbatore City police are showing a soft corner to them. But not all violations go unpunished, the police cautioned.

On an average close to 600 cases are booked by the traffic police every day for various violations. From Friday night to Sunday night the police deploy additional teams to book violators and the number of cases booked on each day is around 900. This dropped to less than 30 on Wednesday and Thursday. It is expected to continue in the same pace till Sunday. “A decision to extend it would be taken on Monday based on the availability of cash in hand with the public or increase in violations,” a senior police officer told DT Next. The officer said the public are already stressed over availability of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes. “We do not want to add to their woes,” the officer said. He added that the information has been unofficially passed on to officers and field level personnel. Stating that most of the cases booked over the last three days were for drunken driving, the officer justified that this offence was not spared as this is the most serious offence risking the lives of others as well.