About ₹12.44 lakh crore of ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes, representing nearly 80 per cent of the demonetised currency, had been returned to the central bank and the currency chests until December 10, the RBI said on Tuesday.

Bank notes worth ₹4.61 lakh crore were issued to the public by banks over their branch counters and through ATMs from November 10 to December 10, 2016, the RBI added.

Also on Tuesday, the CBI took into custody a senior special assistant working in the RBI in Bengaluru for his alleged involvement in currency exchange. The Enforcement Directorate is probing a case of two State government engineers and a contractor involved in the conversion of old notes to freshly minted ₹2,000 notes.

The RBI’s data indicates that new notes issuance has not kept pace with the amount of scrapped notes that have been tendered by the public to banks.

That being the case, the RBI needs to ensure that its currency note presses fire on all cylinders. The public has been facing a serious shortage of currency notes following the demonetisation of high-value notes, which took effect on November 9.

In response to media reports of irregular transactions in various bank branches and the alleged involvement of bank staff, Deputy Governor SS Mundra said, “In an operation of this size, there are always elements who would have behaved otherwise than what is expected of them; we are keeping a constant vigil on the same.”

To a question on whether a show-cause notice had been issued to Axis Bank, Mundra said “There is no such thing at this point...Wherever such actions are reported, enquiries are made. But as of now no show-cause notice has been issued by us.”

On Monday, the RBI clarified that it has not initiated any action to cancel the banking licence of Axis Bank in the wake of certain allegations about irregularities.

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