Bhubaneswar, Dec. 4: Sales professional Amarendra Parida, 35, received his salary for the last month on December 3. However, it has not come to him as respite.

Parida has received his pay in cash.

"I will have to stand in huge queues to deposit the sum and again to withdraw it in phases," he said, adding that he had been paid Rs 30,000 in scrapped currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.

"I hoped I would get the salary in valid currency notes. But unfortunately, that has not been the case," said Parida, who works for an electrical machinery company at Mancheswar Industrial Estate.

Four days after the announcement of the demonetisation exercise by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Parida and his 150 other employees had been given a month's salary in advance.

"Our company officials had then said that we would shortly have our own salary accounts. However, they said yesterday that the process of creating salary accounts would take another month or so," he said.

There are around 1,000 odd firms in Bhubaneswar that offer salary in cash or cheque to their employees.

"Before the banning of the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, getting salary in cash was an advantage as one could set aside a specified sum for domestic expenses before depositing the rest in the bank," Parida said.

Even those who had their pay credited to their salary accounts are in a fix over the cap on withdrawals. However, the worst sufferers are those who get their pay in cash or by cheque.

Graphic designer Sanjeev Behera, 46, who lives in Baramunda, received his salary by cheque. "The problem is that I cannot encash the cheque immediately as it exceeds the minimum withdrawal limit imposed by the government per person per week," he said.

Behera had deposited the cheque yesterday and would now have to stand in queue tomorrow to withdraw Rs 12,000. "Payments to the milkman, domestic help and newspaper vendor have not been made. I have promised them to pay them within a week. This is the first time that I am facing such a situation," he said.

Those who were unable to withdraw cash in the first three days of the month were today greeted by non-functional ATMs or ones that have run out of cash.

At least two ATMs (one of State Bank of India and another of Corporation Bank) in Bomikhal area have not been working for the past two days. A Punjab National Bank ATM also ran out of cash this morning. Besides, ATMs at other locations such as Nayapalli, Baramunda and Saheed Nagar had also run dry by Saturday evening.

An official of Tata Communications Payment Solutions Limited, a firm that manages ATMs, said replenishment of the cash dispensing machines was hampered because of a bank holiday today and the unavailability of sufficient cash in the coffers.

State Bank of India official P.P. Panda said the banks were ready to meet the rush of customers tomorrow.