Many bank branches, particularly those of public sector banks, in and around the city, received more footfalls than usual on Monday when customers rushed to the facilities to withdraw money, most of them the COVID-19 relief amount credited by the government.
Many of them were PMJDY or Jan Dhan accounts holders, who sources in banks said, started queuing up before the branches since morning, presumably to complete the transaction and return home early to escape the heat.
But with such a customer rush neither expected nor witnessed earlier this month, the task on hand for the bankers proved challenging, particularly in the context of maintaining the social distancing norms as well.
“The main reason for the rush was that banks opened after three days and it will be a holiday tomorrow,” a senior official of the State Bank of India (SBI) said. Banks remained closed on account of Good Friday, second Saturday and Sunday. April 14 will be a holiday on account of Ambedkar Jayanti.
Sources in the State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) said many of those who came to the branches were PMJDY women account holders who did not thus far withdraw the ₹500 (a month for three month) COVID-19 relief the Centre had announced for them.
The State government had on Monday also credited ₹1,500 into the accounts of white ration card holders, an official said. There were also customers who wanted to withdraw the relief announced under the PM Kisan Samman Yojana.
A leader of bank employees said a bank branch that maintained accounts of many GHMC employees received sanitation workers of the civic body as the cash incentive announced by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had been credited to their accounts.
At some branches like that of an regional rural bank in Bibinagar, police help had to be requisitioned to manage the customers. An official of the RRB said many of the PMJDY women account holders did not quite comprehend the communication issued earlier this month by the SLBC as a measure to maintain social distancing and orderly withdrawal. The schedule for withdrawal by the beneficiaries was based on the last digit of their Jan Dhan account numbers.
After April 9, the account holders may go on any day as per the normal banking hours, the SLBC had said. Subsequently, the SBI had also issued an advisory informing customers that the relief sum will remain in their accounts if they prefer not to withdraw now.