Congress terms Centre’s move ‘breach of right’

​Suryapet: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of pushing the entire nation into chaos by imposing the decision of demonetising currencies of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denomination in a hasty manner.

The poor and the middle class have literally been pushed to starvation. While daily wage workers are not hired by anyone during the last two days, the middle class population has left with no smaller denomination currency to meet their daily expenses.

The Prime Minister has created this crisis in everyone’s life just to display the power of his dictatorship,” alleged Uttam Kumar Reddy while addressing a massive public meeting at Nereducherla under Palakidu mandal of Suryapet district on Friday.

The TPCC chief said the Centre’s decision had infringed citizens’ right to life and trade, among others. He said while the Congress supported crackdown on black money, the Prime Minister’s hasty move has only hit the poor, the middle class, farmers, daily wage earners, small traders, students, self employed and housewives.

He said long queues at banks and post offices for the last two days clearly showed that all sections were badly hit with the decision. The government should ensure quick replacement of old notes by new ones, he said adding that the limitation for exchange of old notes with new ones and withdrawal limits from ATMs should be relaxed.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes accounted for 86.4 per cent of all the notes in circulation. Therefore, the Centre should have made quick arrangements to replace them with new notes without causing any inconveniences to citizens. However, Modi had forced the entire economy to implement a not well-conceived decision.

Stating that the regular cash flow into the market might not be possible in near future, Uttam Kumar Reddy demanded that the Centre and the State government make some alternate arrangements to help the poor, especially the daily wage earners, who were victims of Modi’s economic misadventure.

The conditions, especially in rural areas, are extremely bad and lakhs of people have fallen victim to this 'economic calamity,” he said. Besides ensuring immediate help, the governments should also compensate for the losses which common people have suffered due to this sudden decision,” he said.

Uttam Kumar Reddy also questioned the logic behind introduction of Rs 2,000 denomination notes. He asked how Rs 2,000 notes would help in preventing the generation of black money. He feared that the currency might be used to hide black money in future.

The Congress leader said the Prime Minister had promised to put Rs 15 lakh in each account by bringing back the black money stashed in foreign country.

However, he said with his hasty move of demonetisation, Modi had put all Indians into trouble wherein they could not access their own hard earned money, although for a brief period.

He also demanded immediate release of water from Nagarjuna Sagar Left Canal for the ensuing Rabi season. He reiterated the demand for clearance of entire crop loan dues at one go.