Nagpur.
The picture in banks on Monday the April 6 could certainly be termed unprecedented, and chaotic, as well. After six days of holidays and half day on Saturday over a period of nine days the banks in city opened only to greet mobs and mobs of hassled customers. Some customers were seen outside the bank as early as 9 am. But the banks allowed customers inside only after the working hours began. Within minutes from that, customers could be seen walking into banks in big numbers and in hordes. There was virtually no place even to stand inside some of the banks. The holiday hangover also put customers on the edge as the bank employees were not coming to the terms of reality and ready to face such a “hot” situation. The parking slots of many banks were overflowing with all sorts of vehicles and this aspect also added woes of the customers.
The chaotic situation was the fallout of a volley of holidays beginning from March 28 and lasting till April 5 with opening in patches. The holidays that tormented customers and subsequently triggered heavy rush to banks on Monday the April 6 were as follows:
• March 28 — Ram Navmi
• March 29 – Sunday
• March 30 and 31 — Remained open
• April 1 — Annual closing of accounts
• April 2 — Mahavir Jayanti
• April 3 — Good Friday
• April 4 Half day (Saturday)
• April 5 – Sunday
In sum, in the nine days beginning March 28 to April 5, the banks were closed for six days and half day on Saturday.
Such a long holiday for banks was being witnessed by customers probably for the first time in their memory. Another worrying factor that stared the customers in their faces was that it seemed almost impossible that the customers who walked in to the banks would walk out with their work done. Owing to this long closure, banking services were affected with no business transactions. While the banking activities came to a halt, ATM holders too suffered the most since ATMs ran out of cash within two days after cash infusion.
