A bankers' union has asked the State Bank of India (SBI) to shut down its branches till the supply of cash gets normalised so the staff are not put to risk to face the ire of banking public.
"We have suggested to the SBI management to down the branch shutters till the supply of cash gets normalised. It is better to close down the branches for some time than the staff face the ire of the public for no fault of theirs," D. Thomas Franco Rajendra Dev, Senior Vice President of the All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC), told IANS.
Dev said his comrades in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are saying that cash supplies there are better but such views are not heard from his comrades in other states.
He said that people in Tamil Nadu will not be able to celebrate Pongal festival properly due to cash crunch.
"It is strange that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is not divulging as to the amount of cash supplied state-wise and bank-wise. What is the big secrecy to be safeguarded after the cash has been distributed to states and banks?" he wondered.
In many SBI branches cash is being rationed amongst the account holders, Dev said.
The RBI has been issuing empty statements about currency supplies being comfortable and currency being sent to rural areas whereas in reality it is not so, Dev charged.
