The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was pushed into action to rescue cash starved Telugu states by dispatching Rs 4,020 crore to both Telugu states to ensure relief to the public from waiting for long hours in queues at banks and ATMs.

A sum of Rs 2,420 crore was arrived in two special aircraft’s chartered by the Andhra Pradesh government yesterday. The cash was lifted to Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Tirupati and Kadapa. From there, it was sent by road to all 13 districts of the state.

This was in response to the phone call from AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to the RBI governor Urjit Patel seeking immediate cash flow of Rs 2,500. Within less than a day, the RBI responded by sending Rs 2,420 crore. The currency was distributed to all the districts on priority basis. While, some of the districts got Rs 160 crore, some districts, where the demand for cash is high got Rs 240 crore.

Meanwhile, RBI was swing into action to rescue Telangana state also by dispatching Rs 1,600 crore. Even before receiving this cash some banks have issued tokens to disburse pensions and salaries so that to disburse upto Rs 10,000 cash.

After Telangana finance secretary K Ramakrishna Rao conducted a review with bankers sought RBI assistance. RBI responded immediately by dispatching Rs 1600 crore to the state. As large number of salaried persons and pension holders are stationed in Hyderabad, about Rs 600 crore from this amount is likely to be disbursed to Hyderabad banks, by sending the remaining amount to districts.

The Telangana government deplored that most of ATMs remained reactive in Hyderabad city for the first two days of this month for want of cash. Now it is hopeful there would be a change in situation.