No end to ATM trauma

It’s been a little over 100 days since the dramatic demonetisation announcement, but ATMs aren’t still back to being “Any Time Money” machines. People who were suffocated by a welter of bewildering rule changes on deposits of old notes and withdrawal of new ones still face problems acquiring valid currency. The mints were supposed to operate overtime to step up supply of notes, but as things aren’t “normal” people tend to overdraw when the rare chance arises of spotting ATMs spitting out new Rs 500 notes. The pink Rs 2,000 notes find few takers as change is scarce. The additional hazard of fake notes from “Children Bank of India”, spewed out by a New Delhi ATM, simply adds to the fear psychosis.

The woes of people, inadequately compensated for their troubles in the Budget, are further compounded by the number of bank holidays. While 52 Sundays and 24 second and fourth Saturdays already mean banks work less than 300 days a year, the holidays under the Negotiable Instruments Act compounds woes as much as restricted hours of cash transactions in most nationalised banks. When a public holiday and a two-day weekend are contiguous, the number of cashless days go up. Add a bank strike — a periodic signal of failure in negotiations between the powerful unions and management, mostly beholden to the government — and the nation’s cash “dry” days stack up. Not all months are January, but that saw some 16 holidays. The feeling that people have been shut out of their own hard-earned money has, however, reigned supreme since November 8, 2016.