The Asian Age: Indore: Friday, August 24, 2018.
Country's
largest lender State Bank Of India (SBI) is yet to recalibrate 18,135 automated
teller machines (ATMs) even after 21 months of demonetisation, an RTI query has
revealed.
The
recalibration is a process, in which the cassettes in the ATMs that hold cash
are modified to suit the size of the currency. Madhya Pradesh based RTI
activist Chandrashekhar Gaud had asked the SBI that how many ATMs have been
recalibrated for dispensing the new currency notes of Rs 2,000, Rs 500 and Rs
200 denomination.
In a reply
sent on August 18, SBI said that out of 59,521 ATMs, 41,386 have been
recalibrated and an amount of Rs 22.50 crore was spent on this work. Thus, it
is evident that 18,135 ATMs at present are not able to dispense new currency
notes.
On November
8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the demonetisation of
currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations. After this, the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) had issued new currency notes of Rs 2,000, Rs 500 and Rs
200 in a phased manner.