ATMs shut after sundownin this district HQ town

Sheohar: Bank ATMs in this district town don’t function 24X7. They close at the end of banking hours, putting the residents and visitors to much inconvenience. This is true of all public and private sector banks. The ATMs remain closed on Sundays as well bank holidays too.
Most of the ATMs here are situated on the half-a-km-long stretch of Muzaffarpur road.HDFC Bank, SBI, PNB, ICICI Bank, Vijaya Bank and Bank of Baroda are among the banks having their ATMs there. All of them were found closed in evening recently.
Vikas Jha, a shopkeeper, said, “I have never seen any ATM open beyond banking hours here. We are helpless but are now used to it.” Most of the ATMs are located at the banks’ branches.
Many ATMs are without power backup facility for use in case of loadshedding. A property dealer, Minto Rai, told TOI how he could not withdraw Rs 10,000 from an ATM at Thana road on Saturday as power supply failed. A local schoolteacher, Imtiyaz Ul Haq, said many a time, ATMs run short of cash.
Given this situation, many people keep enough cash at their homes. “We hardly use ATMs. I last used an ATM two years back,” said a hotel owner whose hotel is situated at Zero Mile road.
A parallel system for withdrawal of money has developed in the town, though on a small scale. At least two shops have machines to make payment for goods bought through debit/credit cards. The two shopkeepers allow people to use the machines to transfer money in their accounts. They, then, make cash payment to people for a charge of three per cent. A shopkeeper said the average number of ‘withdrawals’ in a week comes to about 50.
RBI’s regional director Manoj Kumar Verma expressed ignorance about such a scenario and termed it unfortunate. “It has to be brought to the notice of the banks concerned. If they don’t take action, then only can we do anything about it.”
Lead district manager, Sheohar, Pradeep Kumar, at first, denied such a poor ATM service. He later conceded, “There are two major problems – technical issues and of cash. If an ATM develops technical snag, it takes much time to rectify it. As for cash shortage, only the banks concerned can clarify.” But he could not explain why ATMs close with banking hours and are closed on Sundays/banking holidays. Asked if there was any law and order issue, he said, “It is definitely an issue in Sheohar, but we receive all support from the district administration.” He conceded that the Bank of Baroda’s lone ATM in Sheohar is out of order for over two months.