BHOPAL: With ATMs in the city running out of cash, life has become miserable for majority of residents, especially traders. People are having a harrowing time in the scorching heat running from one ATM to another in search of money.Sandeep Chourasia, a contractor in Bhopal, reached New Market at around 8.45 am on Monday to withdraw cash from an automated teller machine. From one ATM to another, he went around the market area on his bike, but was disappointed to find that all the ATMs had run dry.Only one ATM at State Bank of India’s branch had cash, but the machine was dispensing only upto Rs 5000 cash and that too only in the form of Rs 100 currency notes, he said. The guard sitting at the HDFC ATM said, “12 baje k baad cash milega” (cash will be available after 12 noon)”.Irrespective of the fact whether the ATMs belong to public or private sector banks, there is no cash, he said. In fact, Chourasia started his search for cash from old Bhopal area and hopped from Bus Stand, Hamidia road, Peergate to New Market only to find all the ATMs without cash.The ATMs in fact were cashless on Sunday afternoon and were not refilled till late afternoon on Monday.In a similar scene at MP Nagar in the afternoon, shutter of one HDFC ATM was pulled down after the cash was exhausted.One bank official said, “There is indeed a cash crisis. As and when people find cash they withdraw more than what they need leading to further crisis.”Another banker said, “For the past few days, many bank branches in Bhopal don’t receive enough cash, not enough to fill up the ATMs. Many times, bigger currency notes like Rs 2000 are missing. People seem to be holding them back.” Efforts to take version of the State Bank of India , with largest number of ATMs , in the state did not yield any result.

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