More than five weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 rupee notes that triggered nationwide uproar, Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday came out with a statement “wholeheartedly” supporting the decision.
Reacting officially for the first time, KCR made a statement to this effect on the floor of the state assembly which assembled for the winter session. “The Telangana government wholeheartedly supports the measure (of the NDA government) taken in the interests of the nation,” he said during a short discussion on effects of demonetisation in the assembly.
He said the Prime Minister had taken this decision for eliminating black money, preventing the circulation of counterfeit currency, eradicating political corruption, tackling terrorism and extremism and thereby building a corruption free India.
The Telangana chief minister suggested that the Centre initiate many more steps towards elimination of all forms of black money.
“Black money held in the form of diamonds, gold, shares and foreign currency and the black money generation through crony capitalism and flow of black money into the country through money laundering from British Virgin Islands, Mauritius, Singapore should be regulated effectively,” he said.
Admitting the demonetisation had caused difficulties and inconvenience to the people, KCR said his government was constantly holding discussions with the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to minimise hardship to the people. “We have written a series of letters to the Centre and the RBI Governor to supply enough currency to meet the requirements for the state. We have asked about Rs 5,000 crore in currency notes of small denomination for meeting the requirement of the State,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Admitting the demonetisation had caused difficulties and inconvenience to the people, KCR said his government was constantly holding discussions with the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to minimise hardship to the people. “We have written a series of letters to the Centre and the RBI Governor to supply enough currency to meet the requirements for the state. We have asked about Rs 5,000 crore in currency notes of small denomination for meeting the requirement of the State,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}He said the state government was closely monitoring the situation arising from the demonetisation of high value currency notes and has put in place appropriate measures to ensure that the economy of the State does not get derailed. Immediate steps have been taken to encourage cashless transactions.
“The assessments made by the Central Government institutions indicate that Telangana State stands first in the country in the number of cashless transactions. On a pilot basis, the State Government is making all out efforts to make Siddipet Assembly Constituency cashless. Already, Ibrahimpur village of this constituency has been converted into a cashless village,” he said.
“The state government has constituted a cabinet subcommittee to recommend policy measures for cashless transactions. To speed up the implementation, a task force has also been specially formed. The government will shortly launch TS Wallet to aid cashless transactions further and taking all necessary measures to promoting digital payments,” the chief minister added.