Patna: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a press communiqué on Tuesday, the second time in a week, re-assuring common people that there was no shortage of currency while the crunch at ATMs in the state capital seemed to have eased.
The RBI had last issued a press release in this regard on April 18, dismissing there was a cash shortage and saying it had sufficient stock of currency notes of all denominations.
But on Tuesday, RBI listed how much money it had supplied Bihar till date and tried to re-assure the masses that all was well with the apex bank.
"It is informed to the general public that Reserve Bank of India has sufficient cash availability with it," RBI said in its press communiqué on Tuesday. It also said that RBI had supplied Rs 12,191 crore in Bihar and Jharkhand since January 1.
The amount is Rs 446 crore more than what it had supplied during the same period in 2016. "The Reserve Bank of India is working in close co-ordination with all the banks and the state government to ensure continuous supply of currency notes," the communique further said.
It also said that supply of currency notes would be further increased in the coming days.
The RBI has also advised residents not to be affected by rumours of currency note shortage and asked people not to hoard currency unnecessarily.
The apex bank also asked residents to go for digital payments in th release issued by N.P. Topno, regional director, Bihar and Jharkhand. "General public is also encouraged to use digital mode of payment. They may also use coins for small transactions."
In Patna, there was improvement in the functioning of ATMs over the past week as a majority of the machines belonging to both private and public sector banks were seen spewing cash to customers.
SBI Officers' Association, Patna Circle president U.K. Singh said: "The situation has improved over the past week and 80 to 85 per cent of SBI ATMs are working and providing cash. Things will ease further in the coming days."
But the situation was improving slowly in rural areas were several ATMs belonging to different banks were still cashless.
