Bhubaneswar: For the last couple of days, ATMs of most of the leading public sector and private sector banks in the city are either out of cash or not functioning due to technical or network issues. This has created resentment among the customers of the city.
An official of a leading PSU bank attributed the problems customers are facing to third party maintenance. Lack of cash in ATMs can be attributed to several reasons such as cash crunch in banks, bulk withdrawals by people who do not want to transact online or do not know how to transfer money, he said. Lack of awareness among the people about digital transactions is another factor that is putting pressure on ATMs which dispense physical currency, affecting their performance.
Another bank official said the shutdown of cash deposit machines is either due to technical errors or due to technical glitches. “As soon as we get the complaints we inform the third party agency to sort out the problems and we make continuous efforts not to compromise in providing services to customers,” he said.
A local businessman Santosh Prasad Nayak said, “I often deposit cash via CDMs but most of the time I have to move to and fro from Sahid Nagar to Idco Tower for the deposits and in most of the cases both will be found dead and I have to visit Master Canteen to deposit money but today (Sunday) none of these machines is working.”
If fines are imposed on the banks with such failure then they will realise the pain common man faces when charged for petty reasons and the issue related to ATMs failure will be sorted out, an exasperated bank customer said.
Ramakant Sahoo, a student preparing for civil service examination, said due to the failure of ATMs they are facing a lot of hardships. The banks go on implementing new ways of imposing charges on transactions, but unable to maintain neither the ATMs nor the special zones where one can update their accounts and deposit money.
Indefinite Tenure
There was a time when “superannuation” meant something. Now it’s just the date you pencil in until the next extension...
Read more
