Currency demonetisation: A month on, Delhi has more questions than answers

NEW DELHI: Almost a month has passed since the demonetisation of high-value notes was announced, but the cash situation is far from normal. Delhiites— especially the salaried class, tenants, housewives and daily wagers—are still clueless about how to manage their expenses. With bank coffers running dry and many ATMs remaining out of order, queues on the few functional units in south, central and outer Delhi grew even longer on Wednesday.
All seven ATM machines located in Ber Sarai in south Delhi were out of cash in the morning.Swadesh Chauhan, a UPSC aspirant, had lined up anticipating the arrival of a cash van. “I will have to visit other ATM kiosks as well because I need to pay rent to my landlord. But I can’t skip my classes. If the government claims to have enough cash, why doesn’t it increase the withdrawal limits at ATMs,” he asked.
HDFC, Axis and Bank of India branches in Safdarjung Enclave ran out of cash by noon. “We had cash for around 30 token holders today,” said an official from HDFC Bank. BOI officials claimed they had not received cash at all.
Chaman Singh had come all the way from Gurgaon to his home branch. “I work in this area, that’s why I have account here. Officials say there is no chance we can withdraw cash today. Even if the cash comes by evening, it will be distributed tomorrow only.”
In the past few days, the public banks in the area have been performing better than their private counterparts. Many private banks located in Yusuf Sarai, Hauz Khas and Green Park Extension asked their customers to come early Thursday. “Only 20-25 tokens are distributed at 9.30am for which people started lining up since 6am, ” a security guard posted at the HDFC Bank branch on Aurobindo Marg said.
Adding to the people’s dilemma is the newly unveiled Rs 2,000 notes. TOI spoke to a few middle-class people who narrated their ordeal in getting change. Vishesh Agarwal (31) said, “I am looking for help because I have run out of notes of smaller denomination. What should I do with this pink paper? I can’t use them to pay for travel expenses or for my day-to-day purchases.”
In outer Delhi areas like Bawana and Prahaladpur, most banks started locking their gates from inside by 3pm. This created panic among the people standing outside, mostly women.
Barring a few, the ATMs in Daryaganj and adjoining areas were closed on Wednesday morning. Police personnel arrived at Kotak Mahindra Bank to manage the crowd. “All banks in this area has run out of cash. Yesterday, I was in the queue but the money was over before my turn came,” said Snehal Mehta, a 29-year PR professional.