Demonetisation: Banks struggle to disburse cash on Pay Day, ATMs run dry

In what is being dubbed as the biggest test of the government and RBI's preparedness to deal with post demonetisation cash crunch, banks on Thursday saw huge rush of people queuing up at branches across the country to withdraw salaries.

With a huge number of ATMs still running dry and people scrambling for cash to pay their monthly household dues, special efforts are being made to pump in additional cash into banks to meet the heavy demand for currency notes on account of salary withdrawal.

Apart from making adequate security deployment, some banks have set up additional counters for withdrawal to meet the rush. The Reserve Bank has been asked to ensure adequate supply of new Rs 500 notes at banks and currency printing presses are working overtime to print them, PTI reported.

Many banks have made 'SOS calls' to the Reserve Bank for additional cash for the first few days of December to meet the initial rush of people.

Since demonetisation, there have been numerous reports of angry customers attacking bank staff and damaging property.

However, bank officials said they were trying to accommodate all the customers with the available cash to ease the situation.