Tag: Note Ban

  • Centre within rights on note ban: Pralhad Joshi

    By Express News Service

    GADAG: Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi on Monday said the Centre and Reserve Bank of India are well within their rights to demonetise currency. “But Congress leaders had hoarded black money and went to court with a complaint against the note ban,” he said in Gadag town.

    On Congress protesting over Mahadayi river water sharing with Goa, he said they ruled the country for over 50 years, but could not solve the problems.

    “In Goa, AICC president Sonia Gandhi said they will not give a single drop of Mahadayi water to Karnataka. So, we brought the issue to Parliament. We will build a canal to get our share of water. The Modi government will solve the issue,” he said.

    Joshi inaugurated a tournament of Gadag Cricket League at the outdoor stadium in Gadag town by batting for a while. PWD Minister CC Patil was present, while GCL organiser Anil Menasinkai thanked the Union minister.

    GADAG: Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi on Monday said the Centre and Reserve Bank of India are well within their rights to demonetise currency. “But Congress leaders had hoarded black money and went to court with a complaint against the note ban,” he said in Gadag town.

    On Congress protesting over Mahadayi river water sharing with Goa, he said they ruled the country for over 50 years, but could not solve the problems.

    “In Goa, AICC president Sonia Gandhi said they will not give a single drop of Mahadayi water to Karnataka. So, we brought the issue to Parliament. We will build a canal to get our share of water. The Modi government will solve the issue,” he said.

    Joshi inaugurated a tournament of Gadag Cricket League at the outdoor stadium in Gadag town by batting for a while. PWD Minister CC Patil was present, while GCL organiser Anil Menasinkai thanked the Union minister.

  • Notebandi effect: Six years on, people still smarting from demonetisation blow

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The father with money in the bank but none to pay vendors for his daughter’s wedding, the retailer scrounging for funds to keep business going, the house help who didn’t get a salary for two months.

    On Monday, these and many other similar tales of hardship became alive again, when the Supreme Court upheld the government’s November 8, 2016 decision to demonetise Rs 1000 and Rs 500 denomination notes.

    The decision, touted by the government to be a ‘surgical attack’ on black money, missed its mark by a great margin and became the bane of the daily-wage labourers and poor Indians, a section which relies almost exclusively on cash.

    To 38-year-old house help Parvesh, even the mere mention of the word ‘notebandi’ sends a shiver down her spine. The single mother of a 20-year-old son said she was forced to work without a salary for almost two months and went empty stomach for days at a stretch.

    “It was the worst time of my life. Worse than even Covid-19, because during the Covid there was at least some help from the government and society at large. But during demonetisation, we are left alone to suffer,” said Parvesh.

    “I mean how can I expect my employer to help me when he himself was struggling with money?” she said, having little to no idea about Monday’s Supreme Court verdict.

    The SC in its verdict said the decision-making process behind the 2016 demonetisation was “not flawed.” In a five-judge bench, four judges voted in favour of upholding the note-ban decision-making whereas one judge dissented.

    The pain was not limited to the poor, and the middle class too struggled to understand the withdrawal rules that cascaded with everyday regularity in the wake of demonetisation. Nor was it any more inured to the agony of standing in the unending queues before the ATMs, which too often ran out of cash, and too early.

    Many small-scale businesses are still reeling from demonetisation.

    “Our business relies on cash and this makes it impossible for us to function properly and run our business. A limited time was given by the government to exchange the cash left with us, we were in continuous confusion about whether we should do business or stand in long queues for hours to get our cash exchanged,” Manish Shah, a Surat-based retailer, recounted.

    “The whole business cycle was disrupted in the entire country,” he added.

    For Jammu-based Rajendra Gupta, the cash crunch due had turned the once-in-a-lifetime occasion of his only daughter’s wedding into a nightmare.

    He recalled how he was made to beg for his own hard-earned money to pay the vendors so that preparations could go on without a hitch. “I didn’t have enough money to pay the vendors. There was a limitation on how much money you could withdraw from banks. And then the government’s continuous flip-flop on rules and regulations and whatnot,” he said.

    ALSO READ | What was demonetisation actually going after, riding roughshod over the public?

    An unprecedented rush at her workplace with hundreds scrambling to get inside was the last thing, Taniya Sharma, then a trainee at a leading bank in New Delhi, thought she would witness in the initial days of her career. “There were scuffles, sights of people crying, some even collapsing — I saw it all. Those scenes continue to haunt me till today,” Sharma recalled.

    “The verdict does little to victims of those times.”

    According to reports, several people died in different parts of the country while standing in queues for money withdrawal and exchange of the scrapped notes.

    In March 2017, months before the status quo would return, the Union government said it had “no official report” on how many people died in queues.

    “No such official report has been received,” Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal had then said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

    NEW DELHI: The father with money in the bank but none to pay vendors for his daughter’s wedding, the retailer scrounging for funds to keep business going, the house help who didn’t get a salary for two months.

    On Monday, these and many other similar tales of hardship became alive again, when the Supreme Court upheld the government’s November 8, 2016 decision to demonetise Rs 1000 and Rs 500 denomination notes.

    The decision, touted by the government to be a ‘surgical attack’ on black money, missed its mark by a great margin and became the bane of the daily-wage labourers and poor Indians, a section which relies almost exclusively on cash.

    To 38-year-old house help Parvesh, even the mere mention of the word ‘notebandi’ sends a shiver down her spine. The single mother of a 20-year-old son said she was forced to work without a salary for almost two months and went empty stomach for days at a stretch.

    “It was the worst time of my life. Worse than even Covid-19, because during the Covid there was at least some help from the government and society at large. But during demonetisation, we are left alone to suffer,” said Parvesh.

    “I mean how can I expect my employer to help me when he himself was struggling with money?” she said, having little to no idea about Monday’s Supreme Court verdict.

    The SC in its verdict said the decision-making process behind the 2016 demonetisation was “not flawed.” In a five-judge bench, four judges voted in favour of upholding the note-ban decision-making whereas one judge dissented.

    The pain was not limited to the poor, and the middle class too struggled to understand the withdrawal rules that cascaded with everyday regularity in the wake of demonetisation. Nor was it any more inured to the agony of standing in the unending queues before the ATMs, which too often ran out of cash, and too early.

    Many small-scale businesses are still reeling from demonetisation.

    “Our business relies on cash and this makes it impossible for us to function properly and run our business. A limited time was given by the government to exchange the cash left with us, we were in continuous confusion about whether we should do business or stand in long queues for hours to get our cash exchanged,” Manish Shah, a Surat-based retailer, recounted.

    “The whole business cycle was disrupted in the entire country,” he added.

    For Jammu-based Rajendra Gupta, the cash crunch due had turned the once-in-a-lifetime occasion of his only daughter’s wedding into a nightmare.

    He recalled how he was made to beg for his own hard-earned money to pay the vendors so that preparations could go on without a hitch. “I didn’t have enough money to pay the vendors. There was a limitation on how much money you could withdraw from banks. And then the government’s continuous flip-flop on rules and regulations and whatnot,” he said.

    ALSO READ | What was demonetisation actually going after, riding roughshod over the public?

    An unprecedented rush at her workplace with hundreds scrambling to get inside was the last thing, Taniya Sharma, then a trainee at a leading bank in New Delhi, thought she would witness in the initial days of her career. “There were scuffles, sights of people crying, some even collapsing — I saw it all. Those scenes continue to haunt me till today,” Sharma recalled.

    “The verdict does little to victims of those times.”

    According to reports, several people died in different parts of the country while standing in queues for money withdrawal and exchange of the scrapped notes.

    In March 2017, months before the status quo would return, the Union government said it had “no official report” on how many people died in queues.

    “No such official report has been received,” Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal had then said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

  • On demonetisation anniversary, Jairam Ramesh says note ban will be marked among worst policy blunders

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Demonetisation, which was announced on this day in 2016, will be marked in the world’s economic history as among the “worst policy blunders”, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said on Monday.

    He also claimed that the decision along with a rushed goods and services tax (GST) “destroyed the backbone of the Indian economy”.

    On this day in 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the decision to ban currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.

    “With every passing year, it is becoming even more clear that 8.11.2016 will be marked in the world’s economic history among the worst policy blunders anywhere. Demonetisation along with rushed GST destroyed the backbone of the Indian economy — the MSME and informal sectors especially,” Ramesh tweeted.

    The Congress leader along with his tweet also shared a graph by former Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian and it was titled “Despite digital boom, cash is back with a vengeance”.

    “First, we were told demonetisation meant cashless economy. Soon the ‘sarvagyani’ changed track and said not cashless but less cash. Now, cash in circulation is above pre-demonetisation levels,” he said while taking a swipe at the prime minister.

  • Five years of demonetisation: When BJP MLA claimed Adanis, Ambanis already knew about currency ban

    By Online Desk

    There was a video that went viral soon after demonetisation. A BJP MLA from Rajasthan was taped in an “off-the-record” conversation saying the Adanis and Ambanis, who are seen as being close to the ruling dispensation at the Centre, knew about the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes before it was implemented.

    Bhawani Singh Rajawat, then BJP MLA from Rajasthan’s Kota, says in the video, “Adani, Ambani and others knew about it (demonetisation) beforehand. They were given a hint and they had made arrangements accordingly. You (government) should have printed the new currency as per requirement.”

    #WATCH: BJP MLA from Rajasthan’s Kota Bhawani Singh claims Ambani & Adani had prior knowledge of the #DeMonetisation of Rs 500 & 1,000 notes pic.twitter.com/L8FRp1NofD
    — ANI (@ANI) November 17, 2016
    He went on to add that the currency ban was an unplanned one and stated that it could have been implemented in a step-by-step process.

    Bhawani Singh has been involved in many controversies in the past. In one instance, he demanded that Bihari students in Kota coaching centres undergo criminal background checks. In another, he had advised bikers to avoid wearing helmets as it leads to baldness.

    On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on national television his government’s decision to ban all currency notes of higher denomination of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 from midnight on the same day.

    On the fifth anniversary of demonetisation, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday termed it a “disaster” and asked if the step has been successful, why hasn’t corruption ended and black money returned to the country.

    “If ‘notebandi (demonetisation) was successful, why hasn’t corruption ended? Why hasn’t black money come back? Why hasn’t the economy gone cashless? Why hasn’t terrorism been hit? Why hasn’t price rise been reined in?” Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi, using the hashtag ‘DemonetisationDisaster’.

    The Congress has been alleging that demonetisation was not in the interest of people and had adverse effects on the economy, a charge the Modi government has dismissed repeatedly.

    The Left parties hit out at the government over the state of the economy and blamed the Centre’s demonetisation policy for it.

    Questioning the move, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury alleged that it “decimated the informal sector”.

    “Economy into a tailspin, the poorest hurt. Informal sector decimated. No black money recovered, but rich got richer. Cash in the economy is the highest ever now! This govt must bear responsibility for pushing India downhill, just for one man’s whim,” he said in a tweet.

    CPI MP Binoy Viswam too criticised the government over demonetisation.

    “Currency in circulation: 2016 Nov.17.97 lakh cr.20 21 Oct.28.30 lakh cr. 57% increase in 5 years! Black money in the country:300 lakh cr. Demonetisation was a total disaster. PM Modi should tender appologies to the nation. Modinomics was ‘much ado about nothing’!”, he said in a tweet.

    (With Inputs From PTI)