The Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha secretariats have directed the State Bank of India’s Parliament Annexe branch to make cash amounting to Rs 5 crore available by November 21 to pay salary advances for their staffers, The Indian Express reported on Sunday. The bank’s branch manager, Sudhir Malhotra, has requested the Reserve Bank of India for advice in the matter. The development follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s November 8 announcement initiating a major demonetisation exercise in the country, in a bid to curb black money and corruption.

Malhotra told the daily, that the offices of the two Houses asked them to arrange for the cash by Monday so that they can give Rs 10,000 as advance salary to their staffers. “I have sent the requisition to my senior authority and also sought RBI’s guidance, as there are standard norms about paying Rs 24,000 to a savings bank account holder and Rs 50,000 to a current account holder.”

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Malhotra said this is the first request of this kind. The Indian Express quoted an unidentified bank official, who said the secretariats could have asked the branch to transfer the salary amount to the staffers’ accounts The official said the payment involves 4,000 employees, all of whom have salary accounts at the branch, and it is difficult to account for a Rs 5-crore withdrawal from a single branch.

A Lok Sabha spokesperson confirmed the development to the daily and said the Secretariat was following instructions issued by the Department of Personnel and Training. He said the total amount was a little less than Rs 1.80 crore, and that the move would reduce the length of queues at ATMs.

The country has been grappling for cash, and banks and ATMs have had serpentine queues outside them since November 8. On Friday, the Supreme Court observed that the long queues outside banks were a serious problem and could lead to riots.