Brouhaha over note ban

Hyderabad: Opposition parties in Telangana Legislative Assembly faulted the Centre’s decision to demonetise the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes and described it as an arbitrary one. Participating in the short discussion on the impact of demonetisation on the State, Leader of the Opposition K Jana Reddy said the Centre had gone forward with demonetisation without preparation.

MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) legislator A Revanth Reddy and CPM MLA S Rajaiah echoed the same opinions. Jana Reddy said that Centre should have withdrawn the big currency notes after the notes of small denomination were printed in enough quantities. He described the Centre’s decision as arbitrary, unplanned and unilateral.

He said that due to demonetization, farmers and daily wage labourers were suffering a lot. He said the decision should have been implemented in a way that it did not put the people in trouble. Akbaruddin Owaisi said that demonetisation was done to protect the banks from the non performing assets and alleged that Rs 8 lakh crore loans were waived off. After the BJP assumed power in the country, Rs 5.5 lakh crore worth of currency had been printed and it was meant to bail out the banks.

Revanth Reddy said the decision of the Centre to ban the big currency notes was not a good one. He demanded full scale debate on demonetisation. Reddy wanted the government to establish mini banks in villages, to involve IKP groups in handling the cash transactions and to give money to the village panchayats.