Bihar's first biometric ATM that was opened here on March 12 never really opened.

The specially designed machine that can read thumb impressions to let the poor workers under the national job scheme have easy access to their wages is lying locked because there is no money in their accounts.

That’s because local Mukhiya Renu Devi, who lets her husband do her work by proxy, is not ready to deposit wages in the 201 accounts at the local Central Bank of India branch, saying it is a complicated process.

The biometric ATM was installed in Vaishali — the Lok Sabha constituency of Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh — as a pilot project and much depends on its success. More such facilities would be opened if the one here works well.

But the hurdles were ready before the first withdrawal could be made. First, there were hardly any jobs under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). Then those with job cards found an opportunity in the Vaishali Mahotsav, which employed about 300 labourers to clean up the historic Kharauna pond.

Their wages were to be deposited in the local bank and the workers could easily access the money — all part of the rural development ministry’s plan to remove the middleman from the chain.

“Mukhiya’s men are telling us to collect the wages from her house. They are telling us that money will not be deposited in the bank as it is a long and difficult process,” said Devnath Ram, a daily-wager.

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