The Centre from 9 November scrapped high value Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes to crack down on black money, leading to unending queues at banks and ATMs across the country. Photo: Reuters
New Delhi: As bank staff faces the wrath of fatigued customers amid continuing cash shortages following the scrapping of high value currency, bank unions have demanded that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) increase the supply of notes to meet increasing demand for money.
There are rumours that branches are hoarding cash but it is far from the truth as cash received by banks is being passed on to the customers, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) backed National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW) said in a statement.
“We should understand that banks are not printing the notes but whatever is provided by the RBI they are doing their best to facilitate the public,” NOBW vice-president Ashwani Rana said.
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Expressing dismay over comments of politicians on bankers, he said they should refrain from provoking the public against bankers by issuing irresponsible statements. The Centre from 9 November scrapped high value Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes to crack down on black money, leading to unending queues at banks and ATMs across the country.
According to the All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA), the next one week to 10 days are going to be much more tense because huge number of employees, workers and retirees/pensioners would throng the branches to draw their salary. If RBI fails to provide adequate cash, it may lead to serious issues of law and order, it said in a letter written to the central bank. Besides, majority of the ATMs are non-functional which will add to the congestion inside the branches, it said.
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AIBEA also said that RBI is issuing umpteen number of instructions every day and bank staff is unable to cope with these instructions instantly until they are duly intimated about it from their respective Head Offices. At times, these RBI instructions create more problems than solutions, it added. It also said that ‘No Cash’ board outside branches is leading to erosion of reputation of banks.
“We are afraid, there would be lot of undue pressures, tensions, conflicts and clashes in the branches and we seek the intervention of IBA to advice the Banks to ask for proper police protection in branches to provide proper security to the staff,” it said.
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All India Bank officers’ Confederation (AIBOC) also said there is need to increase cash supply by RBI. “We also request IBA to take up with RBI to ensure adequate supply of currency notes to all Banks without any discrimination, which allegation is also doing a lot of rounds that some few private banks get more supply of notes from RBI at the cost of public sector Banks,” AIBOC general secretary Harvinder Sigh said.
