Chennai: Government employees are dreading pay day tomorrow as their request for salaries to be paid in cash was rejected outright and they have been told that the salaries would be credited to their bank accounts as is usually done.

Similar is the fear of government school teachers, state transport union members, members of the cooperative unions and the like. They all had requested the government to disburse their salaries in cash this time as the queues outside the banks are unending.

By Wednesday evening, the salaries would be credited to about 18 lakh government employees across the state and thousands of school teachers and transport union members. As it is there is a rush at the ATMs and on salary day, the crowds would be even bigger fear the employees. Which is why, they had approached the government with a request that they be given cash instead to meet the monthly expenses.

Said R Shanmugarajan, president, Tamil Nadu government employees association, “we had demanded cash payment but it was rejected outright. We also requested for relaxation in withdrawal norms from the banks, which also has been rejected. So there will be a huge problem for the government employees.”

There are close to 18 lakh government and semi government employees in the state.

Neither the banking sector completely geared up for the Salary day. Problems for the people will persist as there is simply not enough cash in the banks, so everyone must brace up for some more tough time, said CH Venkatachalam a bank official with a public sector bank.

Banks will face additional pressure as the withdrawals will be bigger, as the limit of Rs 2000 in ATMs stays. As also, there is a limit of Rs 24,000 over which one cannot withdraw from the savings bank account.

Unless the ATM limits go and the government is able to fill all the ATMs with cash, the pressure on banks would not ease and the situation for the people is also likely to continue to be cumbersome. Of course for those carrying out card transactions, there is no problem.