Currency shortage in UP banks, ATMs give people a hard time

People in Uttar Pradesh and in neighbouring Uttarakhand are facing a shortage of cash in banks and ATMs, six months after the old currency notes of Rs 1,000 and 500 were demonetised in the country.

According to officials, they are managing with only 70 per cent of currency supply.

Barring some big cities, cash scarcity in the state has hit a worrying proportion, a senior bank official admitted to the IANS.

The situation is bad in smaller towns and villages where the cash shortage is akin to November when all ATMs went dry for several weeks after the demonetisation.

Banks in Kanpur alone need currency flow of about Rs 400 crore every day but they have been receiving only Rs 250-300 crore for the last one week. The currency supply against Rs 15 crore needed in rural banks has also dropped to Rs 10 crore.

The Kanpur branch of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) provides cash to the banks and the 250 currency chests across Uttar Pradesh.

Officials say this was a temporary phase and would be over within the next few days.