ATMs dry up in Malabar

Kozhikode: ATMs in the Malabar region ran out of cash on Monday and resulted in public protests in front of several banks in different parts of Malabar. Since today was declared a bank holiday because of the Prohpet’s Birthday, the employees failed to replenish the ATMs with cash. But according to bank employees, they stocked the banks on Monday morning with the available stock of money. Every bank for the last one week has been severely hit because of insufficient money required for daily transactions.

Chief Manager SBT branch, Kozhikode Sreenivasan said that if the situation continued to prevail, the normal life of people would be hit and the worst affected would be businessman. “I visited quite a few ATMs on Monday but was unable to withdraw money since most of them were out of cash by the time my turn same,” said Ahammed Ismail, a city resident. “It is celebration time but everything has been ruined because of this”, he added.

“The ATM near our campus is getting emptied soon after the Bank fills cash as the locals patronize it. The issue is still the same as it was before,” said Vidhusekhar P, Teacher, Kannur University. “The  Rs 500 notes are taken by the customers from the Bank and people deposit Rs 2000 notes. People are reluctant to give Rs 100 notes. So ATMs dispense Rs 2000 notes,” said Rakesh N, Bank Employee, Kannur explaining why smaller denominations are not available.  He added that people should realize the importance of cashless transactions and carry out more transactions either using cards or online”, he added.