A special aircraft of Indian Air Force is learnt to have ferried in here last evening urgent supplies of notes of lower denominations of Rs 50, Rs 20 and Rs 10 in 170 boxes, amounting to Rs 28 crore.
This will be disbursed among various banks from this morning on a priority basis, according to sources in a public sector bank. This is expected to ease the tight liquidity position with respect to lower denomination notes.
The Reserve Bank of India had been apprised of the situation building in the State due to inadequate supplies of the notes in the wake of demonetisation of the high-value ones.
But what the State initially received as replenishment were the new Rs 2,000 notes, which would literally prove a 'hard nut to crack' for everybody, most of all daily wage earners and even small businesses, since they could not be transacted easily.
Later, the new Rs 500 notes were airlifted twice during as recent as the last one week or so, but, according to sources, were way below the State's requirement. Not all these notes have reached banks/ATMs either.
It is in this context that the new supplies have arrived. The State had observed a hartal yesterday; though banks were exempted, authorities did not risk operating vehicles to move the cash to branches/ATMs.
This morning, however, bank counters and many ATMs are expected to witness rush when they open for business after a break of practically three days - two holidays and a hartal day.
The consignment of notes of smaller denomination, reportedly sourced from Nashik, is expected to help the front staff to deal with the situation "a great deal but only till stocks last'', the sources said.