Telangana to get Rs 1,600 crore:

HYDERABAD/ VIJAYAWADA: Even as he chaired the first meeting of a high-powered committee constituted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to see that all states move towards a digital economy with cashless transactions on Thursday night, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu was a tense man. So much so that a worried Naidu had to make an SOS call to RBI governor Urjit Patel a couple of hours later because AP was "cashless" even to pay salaries to its employees and pensioners.In response, the RBI chief sent Rs 2,420 crore by special chartered flights to Visakhapatnam and Tirupati on Friday. "We made efforts to send the cash by roads to various parts of the state. We told the bankers to keep the money available for all sections of people," Naidu said.Senior state government officials said that a sum of Rs 240 crore each was sent to severely hit districts, and Rs 160 crore each to other districts.Gannavaram airport director G Madhusudan Rao confirmed that a chartered flight of TruJet landed in Visakhapatnam at 10am on Friday . "While no scheduled flight or special flight carry ing cash landed in Vijayawada, a TruJet flight with currency landed in Vizag airport," he told TOI. Rao added though the private airliner didn't operate flights to the Port City, it ran a special flight because of the exigency .While the salary bill of state government employees, including pensioners, is Rs 3,000 crore a month, public sector undertakings run up to Rs 2,000 crore and a Rs 450-crore welfare pensions bill. Sources said Naidu made no secret of his displeasure at the RBI's failure to keep its promise to meet the state's salary bill demand and making available Rs 3,000 crore ready by December 1.Municipal administration minister P Narayana said Naidu had to step in to ensure that cash was sent on a war-footing to tide over the crisis. "Senior citizens, physically challenged and women are facing serious problems to get even small amounts," he said.Banks in the state have been managing the situation with around Rs 1,300 crore as against a demand of Rs 5,000 crore. "After the RBI promised to dispatch Rs 3,000 crore to meet the pay day demand, the state government credited the social security (welfare) pensions into the accounts of beneficiaries," a treasury department official said.With government employees taking away their "privileged" Rs 10,000 from the salary accounts on December 1and 2, banks were left with empty currency chests.The cash-starved banks in Telangana can hope for a reprieve with the RBI deciding to dispatch nearly Rs 1,600 crore to the state this week. Finance department officials said that they were assured by the RBI that it would be pumping in Rs 1,600 crore into the banking system to meet the immediate salary drawal rush. Rs 600 crore has been earmarked for Hyderabad.