Most of the ATMs in the city either don’t have cash or an ‘out of order’ board welcomes the customers for the last four to five days.

In fact, many customers have been trying every ATM they come across, irrespective of the bank, even though they know that the banks would charge if they use other bank ATMs.

“I tried six ATMs of Canara Bank in the city (Kaikamba, Bikarnakatte, Kadri, Balmatta, Valencia and PVS Circle) on Monday, but none of them were dispensing cash. Then I tried Dhanalakshimi Bank in Balmatta and SBI as well as SBM in Mallikatta. They too did not have cash,” rued Jerome Lobo, who had come from Moodbidri presuming that he can withdraw the money in one of the ATMs in the city. He had come to Mangaluru to purchase spare parts for his pump. “If I knew about this, I would have withdrawn money through cheque in Moodbidri itself,” he told DH.

Jerome is one among hundreds (perhaps thousands) of Mangalureans who are fed up with the ‘No cash’/‘Out of order’ board in almost every ATM they visit.

Quite interestingly, Collector’s Gate ATM at Bendoorwell is perhaps the only Canara Bank ATM which had money on Monday. “We had loaded Rs 21 lakh on Monday and today we have just Rs 3 lakh,” said bank manager Rees Mathew. Many non-Canara Bank customers too visited this ATM though they knew that additional charge will be levied for transaction by non-Canara Bank customers, he added.

Meanwhile, Syndicate Bank regional manager Somayaji said that he has been getting calls from Karwar (Uttara Kannada district) to Kannur (Kerala) seeking cash to meet the demand. “Many people are withdrawing money though they don’t need it after they learnt that many ATMs are running out of money,” he opined and added that using digital money seems to be the only solution as of now. “Hope the situation would ease soon,” he said.

“RBI officials have asked the banks to manage with whatever money they have,” said yet another manager on condition of annonymity. He added that many banks have only currency of Rs 10 and Rs 20 denomination. “Even Rs 100 denomination currency is running out of stock,” he added.

Lead Bank manager Raghav Yejamanya said that Dakshina Kannada district has 44 banks and 842 ATMs. They include Canara Bank (151), SBI (113), Corporation Bank (100), Vijaya Bank (82), Syndicate Bank (69), Karnataka Bank (54), Axis Bank (43), ICICI Bank (33), SBM (24), IOB (22), Federal Bank (15) and HDFC (12) among others.