India struggles as millions throng banks to swap currency

“Over the counter exchange of old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, w.e.f 18th November, the existing limit of Rs. 4500 will be reduced to Rs 2000”, Das added.

Accordingly, even if we assume that the full amount of Rs 12,500 crore is being disbursed in Rs 2,000 denomination on a daily basis, it will take 116 days to replenish the financial system with what has been declared illegal. ATMs located on bank branch premises dispensed cash, but standalone ones largely remained cashless.

“The Reserve Bank of India has once again clarified today that there is sufficient supply of notes consequent upon increased production which started almost two months ago”. As the Citizen’s need not to worry about the withdrawing of cash through their own banks’ ATM or other Banks.

“On one hand, we are number one in economic growth and on the other we are ranked 100 in global corruption rankings”, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an unscheduled address to the nation. “So, we were giving Rs 5,000-Rs 6,000 to people instead of Rs10,000”, a senior official of a cooperative bank said.

“I understand why the Indian government has done it, but surely they should have prepared for it better and made sure there was plenty of the new notes distributed throughout India”.

“Nearly 50% of ATMs are likely to be recalibrated in a week to dispense the new high-value notes besides R100 ones”, a senior finance ministry official said.

A staffer at the ICICI Bank, Mehdipatnam, said that “the money will come only at 7 pm”. “The people with all the black money, they’ll find a way to manage”.

Hundreds of people are lined up in front of the UCO Bank at Johari Bazar in the Indian western city of Jaipur, desperate to exchange now-useless 500 and 1,000 rupee currency notes.

Currently, the ATM withdrawal limit from savings bank accounts stands at Rs 2,500 a day.

“You can’t depend on ATMs as they are running out of money in no time”.

December 30 is the last date to deposit or exchange the spiked currency.

The pressure on the bank employees would ease soon as ATMs would also be able to work for longer hours.

The company said, “A working ATM is probably top-most on most people’s minds right now”.