Jamshedpur, May 31 : Most of the ATMs (automated teller machines in the vicinity of banks) in the city went out of cash as two-day strike called by United Forum of Bank Union (UFBU) continued to hit banking services for second consecutive day.
The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), a representative body of nine bank unions, had called for a bank strike on May 30 and 31. Officials of State unit of UFBU said that the decision was taken following Government�s casual approach to wage revision for bank employees/officers, IBA�s meagre offer of 2 per cent hike in wage bill towards wage increase and IBA�s delay in resolving charter of demands.
However, bank customers continue to suffer due to strike. �This is inexcusable. The bank employees had deliberately squatted in front of the ATMs near State Bank of India main branch (Bistupur) to prevent customers to enter ATMs. We have no choice but to remain cashless,� said a resident of Bistupur.
While most of the ATMs remained cashless, the ones that had money witnessed a huge rush. People who were out of cash queued outside ATMs since morning to withdraw money. Longer queues were witnessed at Sakchi.
�All ATMs near my house were out of cash . Hence, I decided to come to Bistupuras ATMs here are refilled first,� said Roslyn Lakra. A large number of people who were already in the queues could not withdraw money due to the same.
�Going by past experiences we have seen that ATMs run dry of cash with only one day of bank holiday. Even if there is cash it is only of higher denominations (Rs 2000) which creates problem in changing it into lower denominations. We hope that banks consider this problems of customers and keep the ATMs filled with cash of mostly lower denominations � Rs 500, Rs 200 and Rs 100,� said ArunavaPrasad, a resident of Sakchi.
Incidentally, there are nearly 500 ATMs of different banks across city and most of the public and private sector banks have ATMs near their banking premises.
Most of the ATMs in commercial centers like Sakchi, Bistupur, Kadma, Sonari and Golmuri have run dry.
�Though we had asked our members against disturbing ATMs but few have held demonstration near the ATMs which might have inconvenienced customers. We will try our best to solve the problems faced by people tomorrow with separate counters and extra hour of works,� said UFBU official.