New Delhi, Jan 17 (IANS): The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) hiked the limit on daily withdrawal from ATMs from Rs 4,500 to Rs 10,000, but a day after the decision many ATMs across the national capital were without cash.
"There is no cash in ATMs of my area...there are eight to 10 ATMs in Sector 15 of Rohini, but none of them has any cash," Mukesh Sharma, a school teacher, told IANS.
He, however, welcomed the RBI decision to raise the withdrawal limit, saying it would help reduce the long and repeated queues at ATMs.
Rajani, who lives in Bawana, said that she checked many ATMs after the RBI announced the increase in the limit of cash withdrawal, but most of these cash vending machines did not have cash.
"I was happy that now onwards one would not visit ATMs quite often, as Rs 10,000 is a good amount. But as I went out to withdraw money, none of the ATMs provided cash in my area," she told IANS.
Rajdeep Bhagat, who works as a Programme Officer with New Delhi YMCA, said that since his office is located in New Delhi -- the area under the central government jurisdiction within the Delhi capital city, there has been no issue of cash withdrawal.
"There are many banks and ATMs in the area and one or another would certainly have cash," he said.
The RBI on Monday raised the daily ATM withdrawal limit from Rs 4,500 to Rs 10,000 and doubled the weekly withdrawal limit from Current Accounts to Rs 1 lakh.
However, in South Delhi the ATMs that were in service had either short queues or nome at all.
Some other areas in the city also had ATMs working and dispensing cash, and the queues were also shorter compared to a few weeks ago.
"There is no cash in a number of ATMs, but the situation is better as we hardly see any queues now and withdraw money without much hassle," said a resident of New Ashok Nagar.
The central bank decision on Monday to raise the daily ATM withdrawal limit came as a much-awaited relief to the people.
"It is such a relief not to find big queues anymore. Also, now that the upper limit has been raised to Rs 10,000, there won't be any problem," said 34-year-old Sushma Agarwal, a resident of New Gupta Colony.
"We expect that we will soon be able to withdraw Rs 10,000 in one go, once the settings are changed," she said.