Calcutta: Most ATMs in the city remained shut on Thursday as well, the second day of the two-day bank strike, leaving Calcuttans looking for cash throughout the day.

Only a handful of kiosks remained open.

The United Forum of Banking Unions, comprising nine groups of employees, has called a 48-hour strike to press for a higher wage increase than the proposed two per cent.

Tapan Pal, 73, was walking from one ATM to another near the Southern Avenue-Sarat Bose Road crossing under the scorching afternoon sun, only to find the shutters down.

"I knew about the bank strike but thought at least a few ATMs would remain open," said Pal, who urgently needed cash to buy some household stuff.

The resident of Jatin Das Road said he was too tired to look further and would probably have to borrow money from a neighbour.

Sourav Shaw, who is pursuing a hardware networking course at a private institute, needed money to pay his mess dues. The 22-year-old from Midnapore, who stays in Jadavpur, was spotted in front of the ATM of a private bank in Golpark, one of the few that remained open on both days of the strike.

"I had been to five or six ATMs before. All were closed. A friend told me about this one," said Shaw. The ATM kiosk has two cash-dispensing machines. When Metro visited the kiosk in the afternoon, one had run out of cash.

After scores of closed ATMs, the next kiosk that this newspaper found open was that of a public sector bank in Dhakuria.

Kabita Das, 60, stepped out of the ATM counting a wad of notes. "I need the cash to make some payment to the Calcutta Municipal Corporation," said the Kasba resident, who has just retired from government service.

Punit Sharma, who runs a hardware store in Howrah, had come to Strand Road to buy drilling machines. The cash he was carrying was not enough. "I have been looking in vain for an operational ATM for 20 minutes," he said.

The union members hailed the strike as "completely successful".

"The strike was completely successful in Bengal and also in other parts of the country. Nationally, around 1.2 lakh branches and 2 lakh ATMs were closed. Clearing operations (of cheques) was affected, too," said Rajen Nager, president of the All India Bank Employees Association and general secretary of the Bengal Provincial Bank Employees Association.

Sanjay Das, general secretary of the Bengal unit of the All India Bank Officers' Association, said only around 20 per cent of the ATMs were open in the state on Thursday.

"Many of the units that were open yesterday had run out of cash as they had not been replenished. There will be a rush when the banks re-open on Friday," Das said.

Additional Reporting by Pinak Ghosh