Bandipora, Sep 7: Customers in this north Kashmir town today complained against ‘malfunctioning’ of J&K Bank ATMs.
 They alleged that the three ATMs in the township usually don’t function during ‘odd hours.’
 “These machines have largely become unreliable for the customers. Sometimes they work, but most of the time they don’t,” they said.
 “The ATM located in front of the Main District Branch JK Bank Bandipora most of the time remains out of order,” said Muhammad Sayeed, a customer, adding that due to this, huge rush of customers remains at other two ATMs in the township.
 “Most of the people return empty handed when they find the message ‘ATM out of order’ on the board,” he said.
 A BSF constable said: “We come all the way from far flung villages of the district to withdraw cash but only to feel disgusted as the machine does not work.”
 Shiekh Saleem, a JK Bank customer said the other machines in front of DC office don’t have sufficient cash to cater to the public demand.
 Interestingly, there are only three ATMs in the district comprising three tehsils and about 103 villages including three municipalities. No bank other than JK Bank has installed any ATM in the district.
 Many customers said due to non-functioning of these ATMs, beggars take shelter in their cabins.
 “Most of the time ATM cabins remain occupied by beggars” said Nazir Ahmed.
 Nissar Ahmed, a local said the ATM installed in main JKB branch remained non-functional for last week. “The bank officials simply pasted a notice saying the ATM is not functioning,” he said.
 Nissar said there were no security arrangements at ATM cabins.
 However the bank officials said the ATMs remained out of order because of “mishandling” by the customers.
 “The lack of awareness among the customers about using the ATM cards is the main cause of the failure of machines,” they said.
  “Customers are putting laminated and damaged ATM cards into the machine which causes failures,” said an official.
 “Moreover, the ATMs sometimes remain out of order due to the busy network system, he added.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 7 Sep 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 7 Sep 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 8 Sep 2011 00:00:00 IST