Bhubaneswar, Nov. 17: People residing on the city outskirts are coming here to withdraw cash and exchange scrapped high denomination notes at banks and post offices as ATMs in their areas are running dry.

Swarup Sahu from Jatni is coming to Bhubaneswar every day as he has not yet been able to withdraw cash from the ATMs in his area. He hoped that the situation would become normal with arrival of new Rs 500 notes today.

"There are around six to seven ATMs of various banks in my area. But, half of them are closed, while the rest have huge serpentine queues of people who want to withdraw money. So, I had to come here. This is my fourth visit to the city for withdrawing money ever since the Centre has demonetised old currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000," said Sahu, a private sector employee.

Pipili resident Debashish Panda also came to the city after facing similar problems in his area. He had to exchange demonetised currency at the head post office in Bhubaneswar. "I reached here early in the morning and queued up at the main post office to exchange notes worth Rs 4,500. I succeeded after being in the queue for nearly an hour," said Panda, a farmer's son.

The decision to reduce the exchange limit to Rs 2,000 has added to the woes of the people, who are already finding it difficult to get cash.

"The government had first said that we could exchange up to Rs 4,000. Then they raised the limit to Rs 4,500, bringing us some relief. But now, they have arbitrarily reduced the limit to Rs 2,000. I don't know what they are up to," said Sailashree Vihar resident Suchismita Mishra, a homemaker.

Akshay Pal, who had also visited the main post office to exchange cash worth Rs 4,500, expressed his disappointment at the move to reduce the withdrawal limit. "The post office employees were already reluctant to exchange cash worth Rs 4,500. Now, the decision to decrease the limit to Rs 2,000 will make things all the more difficult for us," said Pal, a private sector employee.

However, the decision to enhance the withdrawal limit for traders, farmers and people preparing for weddings has brought some relief to many. "It is a good move to enhance the limit for traders. We often have to pay our workers in cash, and things were getting complicated for us. I hope that from now, we will be able to pay the workers their dues in time. I hope it is raised further from the present ceiling of Rs 50,000," said Association for Odisha Real Estate Developers president Umesh Pattnaik.

Rama Devi Women's University student Prajyoti Mishra, whose sister is getting married in December, also welcomed the decision to enhance the withdrawal limit for those celebrating weddings to Rs 2.5 lakh.

"Weddings are impossible to organise without a good amount of money at one's disposal. My family was in all sorts of problems following the government's demonetisation move. We are now feeling slightly relieved," said the Acharya Vihar resident.