Note ban led to decline in terrorism: Union Minister

​Visakhapatnam: Union Minister of State for North Eastern Affairs Dr Jitendra Singh on Monday asserted that demonetisation has acted as a strong deterrent against all the outlawed outfits, including Maoists, in Northeast and elsewhere in the country.

Singh, who was here to attend a conference on e-governance, told reporters that the terror activities of all the outfits came down by 60 per cent in effect of the scrapping of big notes.

Starved of funds with the withdrawal of high-value currency from circulation, the terror outfits were forced to reduce their activities during the last two months, he said.

The measure has also showed up signs of positive impact on the economy by acting against black money and hawala transactions and the melody of fake currency.

Quoting the official data, he said note ban has brought 50 per cent of hawala transactions to a standstill. He said two dens producing fake currency in Pakistan were shut down.

Regarding the conference, he said the government was according top priority to maximise governance with a minimum governmental intervention by harnessing IT.

Secretary of Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievance C Viswanath said this was for the second time the conference was being held in Andhra Pradesh.

First it was held in 1998. Policy makers, industrialists and academicians would deliberate on meaningful strategies for e-governance.

Later, Minister for IT and Information Palle Raghunadha Reddy spoke on how the AP was surging ahead with e-pragathi and AP Fibre grid project.