Telangana State Level Bankers Committee requested RBI for more cash in view of of the govt launching distribution of 59 lakh cheques to farmers under the Rythu Bandhu scheme.
The scheme launched by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in Karimnagar district. Under the ‘Rythu Bandhu’ scheme for farmers, government provides input costs by giving them Rs 4,000 each for every acre through specially printed cheques.
State Bank of India (Hyderabad Circle), said they expect one third of the total of Rs 5,700 crore that is required now, within a week and the remaining amount thereafter.
The Government has allotted Rs 12,000 crore for the scheme in the budget.
“The aggregate amount is over Rs 5,700 crore. For encashment of cheques we requested government and RBI to make the cash available adequately. Telangana is already a deficit state in terms of currency. This is a very unique and one time requirement of cash within a short time frame,” he said.
“They (RBI) are providing us some cash at this point of time, which is one third of the requirement for all the eight banks, this week itself,”.
SBI alone printed about 26 lakh cheques of the total of 59 lakh, all of which were handed over to the government, which is ready to distribute them to farmers, he added.
