ATM-hopping becomes Sunday fun for city

AHMEDABAD: On Sunday, many ATMs across the city went 'dry' of cash, forcing people to try their luck from one ATM after another.
Before midnight, when the date changes, people started taking positions in queues outside ATM kiosk in various areas like Navrangpura, Ashram road, Raipur, Maninagar and Kalupur. These people wait for the stroke of midnight when they can withdraw their money.
Shalini Khatri, 29, a city-based professional who was standing in a queue outside an SBI ATM near Kankaria, said that she preferred to stand in the queue in the night as she did not want her Sunday to be wasted in queues.
"We cannot merely depend upon swiping debit cards as our vegetable vendor, milk vendor or rickshaw driver does not have swiping machines," Khatri said. Since Sunday morning, currency notes seemed to played hide and seek at ATMs as many people who were informed that the ATM was working, had to return empty-handed.
Dipak Jhala, 32, a software engineer from Nehrunagar, said, "My neighbor successfully withdrew money from an ATM near Nehrunaagr BRT stand but as and when I reached there, the ATM machine was out of cash."
The western part of the city was bit luckier than the eastern parts where hardly any ATM was running and the city-dwellers had to come all the way to western areas.
Mohammed Shehzad, 30, who owns a paint shop in Rakhial area of the eastern city, said that he did not find a single ATM functioning in eastern Ahmedabad. "I have roamed from Naroda to Bapunagar and then till Nikol but could not find a single ATM working," said Shehzad, who was standing in the queue of an HDFC ATM at Navrangpura area.
Mahesh Chhotala, who hails from Rajula taluka of Amereli district and stays in the city, said, "It has been difficult for me to stand every day in a queue to get money but I think demonetization will help the country." After standing for an hour in a serpentine queue at the ATM, he could not get the money as the machine was not left with any cash. He later said, "The demonetization should have been undertaken with proper planning as honest people are suffering."