Many people across the city on Monday were inconvenienced to find that a number of ATMs had run out of cash. Although Monday was a
working day for many offices, most of the banks, if not all of them, apparently failed to service their ATMs, a number of which had been emptied of cash as early as Sunday evening.
Speaking to TOI on Monday, Pankaj Bej, a student in the city, said, "I have been looking to withdraw some money for at least half an hour now, but at all the six ATMs I have visited so far, none seems to have any cash left. I have to draw money immediately, otherwise even my dinner today is in jeopardy!"
Then there were those like Ashish Bawankule, who had exhausted their stock of cash over the weekend, and were at their wit's end by Monday afternoon. "I had made sure that I had enough money going into the weekend, but by Sunday evening, we had spent most of our stock on various aspects of the celebrations. Today morning, when I set out to buy a present for my sister on Bhaidooj, I was astonished to find that the ATM of my bank had run out of cash," said this software professional.
Additionally, the fact that the new rule, which allows people to withdraw cash from ATMs of other banks only five times a month without charging them an extra fee, had been brought into effect only a few days ago, did not help.
"We had come to know that this rule had been affected from October 15, and had therefore tried to ensure that we withdraw money from ATMs of our bank only. However, after finding that none of the ATMs of our bank were working, we were forced to withdraw a large amount from another bank. It was a relief to know that this was our first time this month. We cannot even imagine what would have happened if this situation had cropped up at the end of the month," said a couple who did not wish to be named.
The reasons behind this were made clear by Sharad Pawar, the deputy general manager of Union Bank of India. "We had ensured that all our ATMs had been stocked to the fill by Friday evening. However, we were not able to refill these stocks between Saturday and Monday because we put currency in our ATMs only on weekdays and working days," he explained.
"Besides, there may have been instances when notes of Rs 500 denomination in an ATM had been exhausted, and a customer had asked to withdraw Rs 10,000 from the machine. The ATMs are programmed to decline transactions under such circumstances. Nevertheless, we are sorry for the inconvenience caused," he added.
Efforts to contact officials of other banks proved futile as the banks were closed on Monday on account of Bhaidooj.