All efforts on to overcome cash crisis: Chandrababu

Vijayawada: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday said the State government was making all efforts to overcome the problems being faced by the people due to demonetisation of high denomination notes by the Centre.

• Says in touch with RBI to get more new currency notes at the earliest
• 2,000 notes of no use presently due to shortage of change
• Threatens traders of slapping PD Act if they resort to hoarding
He admitted that that a large number of people were facing hardships in the State and country due to unexpected ban and non-availability of notes of small denominations. He said the country was facing a transition period and felt that such problems would arise when reforms were implemented on a massive scale.

The Chief Minister discussed the situation arising out of high value note ban with officials at the Command and Communication Centre here. Later, addressing the media, he said the Central government had taken a step to check black money in the country and felt everybody should support it. He said the government was making all efforts to resolve the cash crisis in the State.

Naidu said the State government was discussing with the bankers, Finance department and Civil Supplies department officials to prevent hardships being faced by the people due to non-availability of change and small notes.

Noting that a large number of people were standing in queue for many hours in banks to exchange the currency notes, he felt that the Central government could have taken precautionary measures to avoid problems before demonetisation. He said the State government was holding discussions with the RBI to get the new Rs500 denomination notes at the earliest and added that the Union government had sent the new denomination notes to MP, Maharashtra and other States.

Naidu announced that the government would invoke PD (Preventive Detention) Act if the traders resort to unethical practices like increasing the prices of commodities. “We will book cases under the PD Act if traders resort to selling of goods at excessive prices,” he added.

Referring to prevention of black money, he felt the problem could be checked with the digitisation of transactions in the State. “Only 18 per cent of total transactions are digitisation in Andhra Pradesh. The State government is trying to increase the percentage by educating people on the benefit of electronic transactions,” he added.

He observed that new currency note of Rs2,000 has no use to the people because of scarcity of change. Replying to a question, the Chief Minister said Rs 6,700 crore was deposited in the banks in Andhra Pradesh since demonetisation and cash disbursement details were yet to be collected.

He exuded confidence that the country can overcome the present serious crisis and felt that the reforms would strengthen the economy in the long- run. He said West Godavari Collector had introduced token system in Rythu Bazaar to overcome the cash crisis and instructions were given to the officials to study implementation of the same in all districts in the State.

In another review meeting, the Chief Minister said that the State was top in the Panta Sanjeevani (farm pond) programme. Directing the officials to complete the targets as per deadline next summer, he said that already 51 per cent of the works had been completed. Several officials, including Chief Secretary SP Tukker, took part in the review meeting.