New Delhi, Mar 29: Banks in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are shipping cash from the neighbouring states as nearly 40 per cent of the ATMs in both the states are running dry.

Serpentine queues were witnessed outside the ATMs in several parts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh over the past week, as the cash crunch intensified in the latter half of this month.

To meet the crisis, banks in Telangana are shipping cash from Kerala and Maharashtra, while those in Andhra Pradesh are replenishing their ATMs with cash from Odisha and Tamil Nadu.

In Telangana, the largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI) claims only 1,400 or 1,500 of its 2,200 ATMs are operational in the state.

Bank officials while speaking to reporters said they earlier used to maintain 94 per cent cash in ATMs. However, the amount dipped to 85 per cent in January and February. The crunch turned worse in March as the cash in ATMs dropped to 70 per cent.

SBI's Hyderabad Circle Chief General Manager Swaminathan J, while speaking to the TOI, said the bank has limited options as it needs to credit the salary accounts of most government employees, apart from depositing significant amount of cash with post officers and treasuries, for disbursement to Aasara and MNREGA workers.

Another reason for the cash shortage, the official explained, is the non-issual of Rs 2000 notes by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) since November 2017.

A recent analysis in Telangana region found that a major section of the salaried class, which used to earlier withdraw upto Rs 10,000 in the first half of the month, now withdraws the entire salary as soon as it gets credited to the bank account. This further intensifies the shortage of cash in the ATMs.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 29, 2018 01:31 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).