Bhubaneswar, Nov. 11: After waiting for a couple of days, Mitanjali Pradhan, 42, a schoolteacher, thought she would withdraw money from the ATM today on her way to school.
However, when she reached CRPF Square this morning, she found the ATM closed. Pradhan then tried her luck at a few other kiosks, but they, too, had run out of cash.
Many ATM counters reopened this morning after a two-day break following demonetisation of high value currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, but the people were left disappointed as the cash vending machines ran out of money fast. Many did not even open in the morning.
All the four ATMs of the nationalised banks near the Bhubaneswar railway station today failed to dispense cash.
Pradhan said: "There was a long queue at the CRPF Square ATM around 9.30am. People expected it to open, but the guards asked them to come later. I went to some other kiosks, but they all had run out of cash. I had to pay my house rent, but I could not."
Many expressed their disappointment at what they called poor management of the situation. "I was hoping that today people would get some relief after the ATMs reopen, but the ground reality was quite different," said Swagatika Satapathy, 32, a homemaker from Rasulgarh.
ATMs at the state secretariat dispensed cash only for an hour after opening in the morning. The employees who turned up late returned empty handed.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today held a meeting with the bank officials at the state secretariat and discussed what could be done to improve the situation.
"All efforts should be made by banks to ensure that people get their money," said Naveen.
He urged the banks to ensure that pension holders, student scholarship holders, inmates of ashram schools and institutions run by the government and other agencies as well as wage earners face no problems.
Since more than 4,440 gram panchayats in the state do not have bank branches, Naveen suggested the RBI and the nationalised banks to explore the possibility of introducing mobile banking or opening temporary counters to make things easy for the people.
"I will be taking up these issues with the Union finance minister shortly," the chief minister said.
Banks officials, however, urged people not to panic. Amaresh Sarangi, a bank employee, said that most ATMs were configured to dispense Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.
"Since Rs 500 notes are not available yet, the ATMs have to be reconfigured to dispense Rs 100 currency notes," he said adding that the process would be taking time. Sarangi said that the ATMs would start functioning normally in the next few days.
In a related development, income tax department today conducted raids at a few jewellery shops in the city following suspicion that people were using the scrapped notes to buy gold using the grace period of 72 hours given by the government.
