Banks allay five-day-off fears
2 min readPatna: Banks will not remain shut for five consecutive days starting from Thursday in Patna, contrary to what social media posts claim. Here, banks will be shut on Friday on account of Good Friday, but Saturday will be business as usual. However, banks will be shut on April 1 (Sunday), and April 2 due to yearly bank closing.
Social media posts have been claiming that banks will be shut on Thursday (March 29) due to Mahavir Jayanti, March 30 due to Good Friday, as well as on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
“We have received information from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI); the banks will remain open on Thursday,” said Syed Muzaffar Uddin, chief manager the State Bank of India (SBI) main branch in the city. “However, in neighbouring states such as Bengal and Jharkhand, the banks will remain closed (on Thursday). We have only one day holiday on March 30 on account of Good Friday.”
This Saturday being the fifth of the month, banking services will function as normal. As per RBI guidelines, banks are shut on the second and fourth Saturday.
The Bank of Baroda too will function like the SBI.
J.P. Sinha, chief manager of the Bank of Baroda’s Patna main branch, said: “As from March 30 to April 2 banks will be open only on Saturday, we have ensured that there is enough supply of cash at ATMs so the people don’t face any difficulties.”
Bank of Baroda has 48 ATMs in the state capital, while SBI has 312 ATMs in Patna and neighbouring areas.
Sources said that though banks will remain open on Saturday, there has been a rush of customers at several banks.
“I had to deposit money in my son’s account,” said Mritunjay Prasad, a resident of Ashok Rajpath who had come to the SBI main branch at Gandhi Maidan on Tuesday. “As we have come to know that banking services will be affected from Friday, we thought of clearing all the pending bank work today itself.”
The state government departments too are busy in preparing salary invoice before March 29. Sources said that many departments have already sent their salary invoice to banks so that their employees are credited on March 31.
State government employees, however, will have no office from March 29 to April 1.
Courtesy: The Telegraph
