Why it was relatively easy to withdraw money in Patna than Delhi?
Patna,(BiharTimes): When N R Mohanty, a senior journalist, arrived in Patna at the fag end of December he found the queues outside banks and ATMs much smaller when compared to Delhi, where he currently lives.
Mohanty, who had served in Patna in both The Times of India as Assistant Editor and Hindustan Times as Resident Editor is quite familiar with Bihar’s capital.
He, like many others in Delhi and adjoining areas, had very hard times in withdrawing and depositing money. Instead of Rs 24,000 many banks in Delhi are just giving Rs 5,000 or so and that too after spending hours, he said.
Similar was the case with Kamran Asfar, a Delhi-based builder of Bihar origin. He was in his home town, Patna, for some personal work in the second half of December. He was pleasantly surprised by seeing much smaller queues outside banks and ATMs. He was so encouraged by the situation that he went to his old branch and withdrew Rs 24,000 quite easily. “It was not at all possible in Delhi even so many weeks after demonetization,” he told BiharTimes.
Mohanty and Kamran are not the only two. There are thousands of people related to Bihar and living in Delhi, who visited the state, especially during the holiday season.
Even at the height of the crisis in November the queues outside banks and ATMs were not so long in Patna in comparison to the National Capital Region.
While people in Delhi and its adjoining areas are still facing enormous hardship why are they not facing tough time in Patna? Even in rural Bihar the situation continues to be bad.
Sociologists are of the view that Delhi has much larger migrant population whose reliance on cash is much more than in relatively smaller towns like Patna.
“In Patna many people have connection with villages and can bring foodgrains and other related items. In Delhi the cost of living is high and there is less scope for borrowing as people are new to each othe. Thus the expenditure is too high,” said Prof (Retired) S K Sinha.
Business-wise too Delhi is a huge trade-centre. Demonetization has rendered thousands of people jobless for months. Even if they want to return to their native homes they had to spend much larger amount.
As an educational hub Delhi has lakhs of students. Many of them only rely on ATMs and have no cheque-book. As they are in the bahit of withdrawing small amount when required the demonetization left them high and dry. The situation was not so bad in Patna where students from villages usually have some close relatives.
In the season of examination, including the Civil Services Mains––between Dec 3 and 9––students had to spent hours outrside banks or ATMs as they had no money to pay to mess or rent. They had to spent precious time when even a minute had its importance. In far-off Delhi they had no near and dear one to solve their problems.
There are many other problems in Delhi and other mega-cities, which Patna does not have. So in Bihar’s capital one can still find long queues in Reserve Bank of India and not at banks and ATMs.
In rural Bihar, however, the situation continues to be horrible. This is simply because banks and ATMs have little or no money for customers.
On deposit front Rs 75,000 crore of old demonetized notes had been deposited till December 30 in Bihar..
