Suhail Bhat
Srinagar, July 18: The pockets of people in Kashmir have dried up as all the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) of Valley’s premier Jammu and Kashmir Bank remained closed and people have been left with no cash to buy essential commodities.
A local resident of Pulwama said that despite availability of cash in ATMs and clear directions from the Government that all ATMs should be kept open, not a single ATM has been opened in South Kashmir. “Last week, the Finance Minister convened a meeting at Pulwama and directed the authorities to keep all the ATMs open so that people do not suffer more but authorities have failed to open any ATM,” he said.
The locals said since all the banks are closed the only source to get cash is ATM machines but there shutters are down. “We need money to buy basic commodities and medicine. Who keeps reserve cash these days? ” Riyaz Ahmad, a local, said.
People who had come from other States of country to earn their livelihood as labourers in Kashmir and wanted to go home are finding it hard due to lack of money. “I am a labourer and cannot survive here without work. I have no money left in my pockets. I used to draw cash from ATM for just one week and it has already been 10 days. I feel like I will starve to death here. For how long will locals feed me here,” Mohan Lal, a labourer from Bihar, said.
When contacted, the Public Relation Officer of Jammu and Kashmir Bank, Sajjad Bazaz, said ‘we have a very unfortunate situation right now wherein it’s almost impossible to run those ATMs as 60 percent of our ATMs need 3G internet services which have been snapped’.
“Even some of our ATMs were attacked but we are trying to open the ATMs where ever it is possible. Our team is continuously monitoring the situation and we will open ATMs wherever the situation permits us,” he said. In Srinagar however, the majority of ATMs are open and people are drawing cash from them.
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