There was a slight let-up in the situation related to disbursal of salary and pensions through the treasury network on the second pay day on Friday, but complaints about disruption of payments were aplenty.
Though the Reserve Bank of India could not completely honour the cash requests from the State Bank of India, State Bank of Travancore and Canara Bank that provide funds to the 222 treasuries across the State, the number of treasuries that did not receive any imprest came down to two from the 12 on Thursday. They are Perinthalmanna and Karuvarakundu. Twenty-two treasuries received less than Rs.10 lakh. Certain treasuries that placed requests for sums ranging between Rs.50 lakh and Rs.80 lakh had to function with sums below Rs.10 lakh.
As per the final statistics of the Treasury Department, the three banks had together placed a request for Rs.1,40,57,41,000, but the RBI could provide only Rs.99,83,01,000. As per the figures compiled at 1 p.m., 18 sub-treasuries did not receive any funds, but subsequently it came down to one. But the cash availability in the northern districts as well as the rural areas was much below their requirement. Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, and Kannur are the districts which did not get adequate currency. Malappuram had the least allotment. Against the demand for Rs.9,81,00,000, the RBI could provide only 2,92,00,000.
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The treasuries in the urban centres of Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi functioned without any hitch.
Once the stock was exhausted, officials told customers about the treasuries where cash was available. Following the directive of Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac, treasuries honoured the Rs.24,000 cash withdrawal limit. The Finance Department has not got any assurance about the cash supply on Saturday. The only solace is that the demand for cash for salary disbursal would taper in the coming days, sources said.