Villagers in hills facing cash shortage due to Covid-19 lockdown

Almora: Locals of remote villages in the hill districts of Uttarakhand are dealing with shortage of cash amidst the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown. In absence of public transport, it has become very difficult for them to go to ATMs (or banks) and withdraw money. People in these villages have run out of cash and are buying essentials from shopkeepers on credit.

“I don’t have any cash left now. We are buying essentials on credit but we don’t know how long the shopkeepers will let us do that,” Hoshiyar Singh Bungla, a native of Bungli village, told TOI in a telephonic conversation.

Local Block Development Committee (BDC) member and Bungli resident Chandra Prakash said, “Bungli is the farthest village of Pithoragarh’s Gangolihat block. The nearest ATM or bank branch for us is in Gangolihat town, which is at least 74 kilometres away. Due to the lockdown, people can’t go that far to withdraw cash.”

Villagers

of Almora district are facing a similar crisis. “Locals have money in their accounts but no cash to buy daily essentials. The administration must take steps to help people facing acute shortage of cash,” said Gopal Gururani, a BDC member of Jyud Kafoon village in Almora’s Hawalbag. He added that he highlighted the issue in a WhatsApp group created for the BDC members of his block. To tackle this cash crisis, State-owned banks like State Bank of India and Uttarakhand Gramin Bank have set up Consumer Service Centres (CSCs) in several remote villages. In these centres, local persons are authorised to do transactions on behalf of the banks on a commission basis. However, the staff members of these CSCs are unable to commute to the villages due to the lockdown. “We get a commission when customers withdraw cash but the commission we get it too less. I cannot book a taxi and go to Gangolihat to collect cash from the bank for this little commission,” said Joga Singh, representative of a CSC (authorised by SBI Gangolihat) in Bungli village.

Meanwhile, district officials of Pithoragarh have informed that ATM mobile vans of Uttarakhand Gramin Bank are making rounds to ensure that people do not suffer a cash shortage. "We send ATM mobile vans to places from where cash shortage is reported. Apart from this, sufficient money has been made available in all banks, including cooperative banks in the remote areas,” Vijay Kumar Jogdande, Pithoragarh’s district magistrate told TOI.