No Cash: The only message that Sikkim ATMs giving away these days

Guwahati: Sikkim, otherwise a very friendly, safe and clean place to live, is these days witnessing irritating and complaining faces outside the ATMs these days as all the ATMs found in the capital city of the state are running out of cash! The ATMS in Gangtok, for being cashless, have created quite an inconvenience as not every and anything can be bought by a Debit Card and one must carry some cash in hands for myriads of things.

One of the annoyed residents of Gangtok, while speaking to the media, says that even after visiting more than five ATM counters on Saturday morning, he has not been able to withdraw anything. Every ATM counter in the city is flashing out the message that they are out of cash.

A guard in of the ATM says that although the ATMs are being re-filled with cash, the cash gets immediately withdrawn due to the huge demand for cash in the capital city these days. As Sikkim is a tourist destination and hosts tourists from across the globe all over the year, most of the times the ATMs remain thronged with withdrawers. In the words of one Bipin Roy, a tourist from Kolkata, he is finding difficulty to make a remaining payment of the tour operator due to non-availability of the cash in ATM. He says, ‘‘the tour operator doesn’t have a swap machine and I did not carry the cheque, therefore, I am finding it difficult to make the payment.’’

A senior bank manager adds, ‘There was a puja holiday and on top that it is a tourist season so all the cash are soon withdrawn as soon as it is uploaded. There is a certain capacity of money that ATM can hold.’

The annoyed tourists and local people are thus, requesting the bank authorities to take acute steps and solve their issues with the ATMS at the earliest.

Also Read: Sikkim News