Nine out of every 10 ATMs were closed or inaccessible to customers in Kolkata on Thursday, the first day of a two-day nation-wide bank strike, causing inconvenience to many.
The strike is against the Centre’s move to privatise public sector banks and in demand of the withdrawal of Banking Laws (Amendments) Bill, 2021, listed for consideration in the current session of Parliament.
Some of the people moving from one ATM to another in vain had weddings in their families. For them, stalled payment meant stalled preparations.
From Kankurgachhi in the north to Behala in the west, ATM shutters were either down or guards wouldn’t let in people needing to withdraw cash. The few kiosks that had opened in the morning were forced shut.
From morning to afternoon, this newspaper criss-crossed the city to find only a couple of ATMs open. One was at Park Circus and the other at Ultadanga, both of private banks.
Ananya Mukherjee, 38, a New Alipore resident and an employee of a private sector airline, visited half-a-dozen ATMs between New Alipore and Rashbehari on Thursday morning but in vain.
“I needed cash to buy some stuff for my three-year-old son. But the shutters were half-down at all the ATMs,” Mukherjee told The Telegraph outside the ATM of a private bank on Rashbehari Avenue.
The ongoing wedding season aggravated the problem. Cash is still the preferred mode of transaction in the wedding sector because both families and the vendors want to avoid GST, said wedding planners.
An ATM kiosk in Tollygunge shut on Thursday. Gautam Bose
“I have an NRI client whose son is getting married on Sunday. The mehndi ceremony is on Saturday. They had to pay multiple vendors but the strike has come like a bolt from the blue,” said a wedding planner.
Bank branches were closed, too. Deposit and withdrawal of cash, issuing of bank drafts and loan disbursement have been put on hold. Internet banking and transactions using cards at merchant terminals were functional.
“We had opened the branch a little before 9.30am. But a group of public sector bank employees arrived around 9.40am and forced the shutters down. The shutters of the adjacent ATM were also pulled down,” said the manager of a private bank in the Tollygunge area.
Supporters of the strike sat outside the closed gates of PSU banks at many places in Kolkata.
As of September 30, 2021, public sector banks operated 8,253 ATMs in Bengal with SBI holding the highest share at 4,282. Private sector banks operated 3,424 ATMs while foreign banks had 41 ATMs.
“Most of the ATMs and bank branches in the state remained closed on Thursday. There was a rally in support of the strike at noon in the BBD Bag area. Reserve Bank of India employees staged a solidarity demonstration at 2.30 pm in front of RBI’s gate. The strike will continue tomorrow,” said Rajen Nagar, general secretary, Bengal Provincial Bank Employees’ Association.
