Demonetisation debate heats up winter session

As the speaker took up the second agenda, the opposition staged a walkout

The sudden scrapping of high-value currency notes rocked both the state Assembly and the Council on the first day of the winter session of the state legislature on Monday.

Energy minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule and Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis outside Vidhan Bhavan in Nagpur on Monday. (HT Photo)

Leader of the opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar and Ganpatrao Deshmukh of the Peasants and Workers Party of India (PWP) initiated an adjournment motion over the issue and called for urgent discussion.

The uproar continued amid sloganeering, despite finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar’s assurance that the chief minister and he would visit Delhi and request the government to allow cooperative banks to accept old notes.Opposition leaders said farmers in the state were facing problems as they were not getting proper prices for their produce.

Similarly, bank transactions at cooperative banks were affected in the wake of the RBI directive that prevented them from accepting high-value notes. Vikhe-Patil also pointed out how several people in the state had died in queues outside banks and ATMs.Ajit Pawar of the NCP said the situation was aggravated by banks and ATMs that were unable to provide cash to people.

The agitated opposition members did not even allow Mungantiwar to make a statement on the issue. They demanded a discussion, which was rejected by Speaker Haribhau Bagde.The refusal infuriated the opposition and they resorted to shouting slogans against the government — “Dadagiri nahi chalegi, Notbandi par charcha jhalich pahije (A discussion on the ban on notes is necessary)”.

As the speaker took up the second agenda — the condolence resolution — the opposition staged a walkout.

The issue also figured in the upper house, where opposition leader Dhananjay Munde, Narayan Rane of the Congress, Jayant Patil of the PWP and others demanded to take the issue through an adjournment motion, which was rejected by Council chairman Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar.

Rane said that several people had died outside banks and ATMs in a desperate bid to withdraw and deposit money. The figure had touched 70. “Demonetisation and the subsequent mismanagement shows the BJP-led government’s immaturity,” Rane alleged as uproar continued. The chairman had to adjourn proceedings for 15 minutes.

When the House reassembled, proceedings were disrupted again with the opposition by storming out.

They insisted on a discussion on the issue through the motion. Mungantiwar said chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had talked to Union finance minister Arun Jaitley twice on the issue of cooperative banks, which refused to accept old notes.

He said the opposition was not able to gauge the mood of the nation which was in favour of demonetisation. He also admitted there were technical problems in a few banking set-ups but said normalcy was returning to the system.

Read

Demonetisation after-effect: Mumbai temple gets Rs3 crore in scrapped notes

Protest against demonetisation in Mumbai: Congress leader calls Centre ‘anti-poor’

Demonetisation: Fee payments in Maharashtra may soon go cashless