Jamshedpur, April 6: Post offices have started feeling the pinch of the ongoing indefinite strike by the State Bank of India employees across the country.

People are not able to encash money under the Monthly Income Schemes, while further transactions through the Western Union Money Transfer (WUMT) and money orders have also come to a standstill due to the non-functioning of the SBI. The post offices depend on SBI for withdrawing money on daily basis.

According to officials of the main post office of the city, the funds have almost exhausted. ?Each day we have pay over Rs 1 lakh to different customers under different schemes. But our daily income is not more than Rs 80,000 and since all SBIs are closed now, we are at our wits end,? said a senior post office official.

Almost all post offices in the state have their accounts with local SBI branches. And in case of need, the post offices withdraw money from the SBI branch to make the payments.

?Now that we are hard- pressed for cash, we are issuing SBI cheques to customers whom we have to make heavy payments,? the official said.

Anil Chaudhury, who rushed to the Bistupur branch post office for collecting money transferred through the WUMT, was not able to collect it. ?My brother has sent money but the employees refused to pay it as they do not have adequate funds. I have refused to take a cheque,? Choudhury said.

The postal officials also said thousands of cheques have piled up at the post offices because of non-clearance of checks by the SBI.

However, state director of postal services Anil Kumar said he has not received any complaints from any of the post offices about the fund crunch that they are facing.

Meanwhile, in view of the strike, Tata Steel management has made alternate arrangement like RTGS (remittance facility managed by Reserve Bank of India) through the head office of local banks at Mumbai and Calcutta. These banks would credit the salaries by April 7, an official said.