Banks and post offices in the city are facing the twin hurdles of unavailability of staff and patchy network amid a rush on the first three days of June as lockdown norms are being eased.

Senior citizens queuing up for pension and owners of small eateries, shops and businesses looking to withdraw cash from their current accounts were among those who stood outside branches for hours.

“This is the second time I am coming to the post office to collect my monthly pension. There is either lok nei (no staff) or link nei (no internet connectivity),” said an 80-year-old railway pensioner who eventually collected her pension after waiting for over an hour at the Beleghata post office on Wednesday.

“The state government has said restaurants and eateries would be allowed to operate from June 8. So, today I went to the bank branch where I have an account to withdraw cash to buy supplies and pay wages to my staff. But there was a link failure and the manager asked me to visit the branch again in the second half,” said the owner of an eatery at Phoolbagan.

Banks and post offices in Calcutta are facing a staff crunch. A large number of employees, especially those who live far away from the city, cannot come to work because of inadequate public transportation, especially the absence of private buses and suburban trains.

“Attendance is better in north and south Calcutta. But in the central and eastern parts, there is a concern. This is primarily because many employees come from distant places.... In the districts, the situation is much better because people living closer to the branches, who would otherwise commute to the city, are now available for deployment locally,” said a postal service officer.

Bank officials said branches were mostly operating at 50 per cent staff strength on a rotational basis.

“As it is, we have to maintain social distancing guidelines. On top of that, there is an unstable network which is adding to the delay in customer service,” said a public sector bank official.

Outsourced services

ATM operations have mostly recovered but some outsourced operations such as delivery of cheque books, credit and debit cards through postal and courier services are still far from normal.

A customer of a private bank has received a message from his branch urging him to opt for digital services as the bank is unable to provide cheque books on request.

“We are hopeful of addressing these issues as the situation normalises,” a private bank official said.

“The outsourcing of these services started with the private banks and now government banks have followed. But still certain services such as cheque book on request cannot be denied if customer goes to the branch and asks for the same,” said Rajen Nagar, general secretary, Bengal Provincial Bank Employees Association.