Bank branches across the city wore a festive look with colourful tents and marquees (popularly known as shamiana), chairs and water jugs placed amid huge yet orderly crowds that thronged the branches to get hold of some cash.
To cushion the plight of customers, several branches of public and private sector banks in Ahmedabad got their branches ‘decorated’ with colourful Indian tents and marquees.
After the Centre’s announcement on demonetisation, the bank branches became the most sought-after places in the town with people rushing to exchange their old ₹500 and ₹1,000 currency notes with the ones newly introduced or withdraw some cash in smaller denominations.
“After the first day’s experience, we found that people rushed to the branches in large numbers and lined up under the sun. As a humanitarian measure, we decided to place shamiana and water jugs to provide them succour,” said an executive outside a public sector bank branch in Ambawadi area of Ahmedabad.
Amid the reports of scuffle between the public and bank staff at several places across the country, the bank staff at most branches took special measures to keep the tempers low while dealing with the crowd.
“A little bit of comfort brings down the tempers to a great extent. Most branches took required measures for crowd control and the customers appreciated this,” said a senior official of a PSB.
“The first day was the worst one as there was complete chaos. We stood for nearly an hour in the heat under the sun. But now the officials have understood our plight and put up tents to give some relief from the heat,” said a housewife, who exchanged money on the very first day.