Bhubaneswar: The BJD will stage a silent demonstration in front of the Reserve Bank of India and various nationalised banks across the state on Saturday to protest against the cash crunch in ATMs.

The protest will be held for two hours - from 10am to 12 noon - in front of the RBI headquarters in Bhubaneswar and all nationalised banks in sub-divisions and blocks across the state.

Announcing this at a news conference, BJD general secretary Sanjay Kumar Dasburma said that they would not affect the functioning of the banks. Banks in Odisha have been facing severe cash shortage with many ATMs showing "no cash" signboards for the past few weeks.

The BJD blamed the BJP-ruled central government for the ongoing cash crunch in the ATMs.

"While people are still facing problems due to demonetisation, drying up of ATMs for the last 15 days has put them in huge crisis," he said.

Dasburma further said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was informed that 2,21,700 ATMs across the country were paralysed till April 16. "Besides, the State Bank of India's research bureau has estimated a shortfall of Rs 70,000 crore in the market," he said.

The cash crunch has affected people of all walks of life in the state, including farmers, students and women.

Chief minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik was one of first persons to welcome the demonetisation move of the Central government on November 8, 2016.

However, the party subsequently changed its stand and said the people faced a lot of hardship due to demonetisation. Naveen had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union finance minister Arun Jaitley in an attempt to bring to their notice the difficulties encountered by the people, especially those living in remote areas, due to demonetisation.