As the currency crisis growing day by day, the Department of Financial Services has instructed the public sector banks to make sure adequate cash available through ATMs, as well as bank branches.

"Strict instructions have given to public sector banks to ensure normal functioning of all ATMs," said senior government officials.

Within the next 24 hours 80% of the ATMs should be up and running with currency, said the officials.

The government official also started video conferencing with the public sector banks.

RBI has set up state level committees to monitor the crisis and make sure the currency supply is not interrupted.

Earlier, the government officials told CNBC TV-18 the problem arose due to shortage of Rs 500 notes due to which demand for the Rs 2,000 notes spiked.

Consequently, the committee set up by the government and the RBI to decided to increase the printing of Rs 500 notes by five fold.

The panel comprises Subhash Chandra Garg, secretary, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Rajiv Kumar, secretary, Department of Financial Services (DFS), BP Kanungo, deputy governor, RBI and two members from the finance ministry.

Rs 500 crore worth of Rs 500 notes were being printed everyday and the printing has been increased to Rs 2,500 crore, Garg said. He also clarified that there is no need to print more Rs 2,000 notes, as notes worth Rs 6.70 lakh crore is already in circulation.

However, senior government officials said they were looking into the cash crunch issue separately from the demand side, and added that one or two states had consumed much more cash than usual.

First Published:Apr 18, 2018 5:03 PM IST