(PTI)
Guwahati/Pune, Nov 16: A cash-carrying van was Wednesday attacked in Assam killing the driver and three more deaths due to apparent stress were reported as people failed to get any respite from chaotic scenes outside ATMs and banks eight days after demonetisation and struggled to secure valid currency.
Cash-strapped people were seen waiting in frustration in serpentine queues in towns and cities as most of the cash dispensing machines ran out of cash within hours after being stocked, while thousands of ATMs were still not functional. Amid frayed tempers, more and more people across the country were complaining about problems with regard to their daily basic needs as most local stores stopped lending goods and other essential items on credit.
Banks and post offices also started using the indelible ink on customers exchanging the scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes in a bid to prevent syndicates and suspicious people coming to a branch repeatedly and misusing the note-exchange facility.
A vehicle carrying cash, withdrawn from a bank and kept in a police station Tuesday night, was going to Pengeri Tea estate in Tinsukia district in Assam when it was fired upon by unidentified miscreants at Digboi killing the driver on the spot and injuring a garden employee and a security personnel in the vehicle, police said. The dead driver has been identified as Abhijeet Paul and the injured admitted to Assam Medical College Hospital.
70-year-old Digambar Mariba Kasbe, who was standing in a queue outside a branch of SBI at Tuppain in Maharashtra’s Nanded district, collapsed and died, police said. A 54-year-old bank employee died after he collapsed in a bank branch in Pune during office hours Wednesday, officials said. The deceased, identified as Tukaram Tanpure, was working as a messenger with the State Bank of India’s branch in Rajgurunagar, about 40 km from Pune, they said.
The “tilak” ceremony of Suman, daughter of Suresh Sonar, a resident of Sahatwar Nagar panchayat, was scheduled for Wednesday. But he was short of cash due to “abrupt” demonetization of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, they said. A dejected Suresh returned home Tuesday after standing in a queue for hours at the SBI branch. He suffered a massive heart attack Tuesday night and died, family members claimed.
“I waited two hours in a queue to withdraw Rs 2500 and it ran out of cash when my turn was about to come. ATMs don’t have cash, banks have endless queues too. How do we manage? Is it not frustrating to wait in line but not getting money even after that,” said Rishika Bajaj, a TCS employee in Delhi.
“I stood in the queue for over two hours, only to be told by a bank official that reserves of currency notes at the branch have dried up,” said Manik Sanyal, as he along with several others left the queue only to look for another bank in Kolkata where cash was still available.