Andhra, Telangana had warned about growing shortage in cash availability
The revelations highlight the fact that the crunch wasn’t sudden. Average cash demand zoomed to around ₹40,000 crore from ₹20,000 crore a month, in February and March.
While the nation woke up to the cash crunch in banks and ATMs going dry in the last couple of days, government officials in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana said on Thursday that their states had warned of this almost two months ago.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu wrote to finance minister Arun Jaitley and Reserve Bank of India governor Urjit Patel on February 15 seeking immediate release of ₹5,000 crore currency to meet the needs of people in the state.
In his letter, Naidu said that people were suffering due to a shortage of cash with ATMs running dry.
The Telangana government also alerted the Centre about a serious cash problem in March. During the budget session, Telangana finance minister Etela Rajender told the Legislative Council that ATMs were going dry and banks were also not giving cash due to an inadequate supply of currency by RBI.
The revelations highlight the fact that the crunch wasn’t sudden. Average cash demand zoomed to around ₹40,000 crore from ₹20,000 crore a month, in February and March.
In the first 13 days of April, it touched ₹45,000 crore, resulting in a cash crunch.
Reacting to Jaitley’s statement that the crunch is temporary, Naidu’s son and Andhra minister Nara Lokesh tweeted it was sad Jaitley had not understood reality. “AP is facing severe cash crunch. AP Govt is not able to even give the pensions and pay MGNREGS workers.” He said Naidu had written to the Centre several times. With the crisis becoming national, “at least now, central government has to react and resolve the issue at the earliest,” he added.
Telangana CM’s son and the state’s IT minister KT Rama Rao tweeted: “Sir, with due respect the cash shortage in Banks & ATMs is neither sudden nor temporary. I’ve been hearing complaints for over 3 months repeatedly in Hyderabad. Please have RBI & Fin Min team dig deeper & not brush away an issue that is eroding people’s confidence in banking system.”