KCR backs note ban

​Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to go for a 'total cleanup' and reiterated that his government would support the Prime Minister in his efforts to eliminate black money.

Replying to a debate on the demonetisation in the Assembly, KCR said the Centre should initiate more steps towards elimination of all forms of black money like diamonds, gold, shares and foreign currency and check black money generation through crony capitalism.

The Chief Minister said his government was of the firm opinion that "the flow of black money into the country through money laundering from British Virgin Islands, Mauritius and Singapore should be regulated effectively."

He said there was also a need for state funding of the elections. Admitting that people were facing difficulties, KCR hoped that this would be a temporary problem as the Prime Minister had sought 50 days to ease the hardship.

The state government, he said, was constantly holding discussions with the Central government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in this regard.

The Chief Minister said his government has constituted a Cabinet Sub-Committee to recommend policy measures with regard to cashless transactions.

“To speed up implementation, a Task Force has been specially formed. The state government will shortly launch TS Wallet that will provide confidence among the people in cashless transactions.

He said the state government was in touch with the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) seeking supply of currency in small denominations to minimise people's hardships.

Quoting the RBI, KCR said so far Rs 19,109 crore cash has been supplied to the state while Rs 57,479 crore was deposited by the people in the banks.

He said the government had taken initiatives to encourage people for cashless transactions. "The assessments made by the Central government institutions indicate that Telangana stands first in the country in terms of number of cashless transactions," he said.