Demonitisation: TPCC to observe "Aakrosh Divas"

Hyderabad, Nov 23 (INN): The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee has decided to organise massive agitation across Telangana State in protest against the inconvenience caused to the public due to improper implementation of demonitisation of Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 500 currency notes by the BJP Government at the Centre.

Briefing the media persons after chairing the meeting of TPCC office bearers at Gandhi Bhavan on Wednesday, TPCC President N. Uttam Kumar Reddy said that as per the directives of All India Congress Committee (AICC) to organise nation-wide protest, the TPCC would organise statewide protest against demonitisation on November 28. He said all sections of the society were badly hit due to unplanned move of demonitisation. Traders, farmers, housewives, daily wage earners, businessmen, middle and poor classes were facing innumerable problems due to cash crunch. He said people were forced to stand in long queues to withdraw their own hard-earn money. He wondered how Prime Minister Narendra Modi was maintaining smile on his face after pushing over 100 crore people into utter chaos.

Uttam Kumar Reddy reminded that Narendra Modi had promised to bring back black money stashed in foreign countries within 100 days after coming to power. He also promised to deposit Rs. 15 lakh in accounts of all Indian citizens. However, he said even after 912 days, the Modi Government was unable to bring back a single rupee from the foreign countries. Instead, through unplanned demonitisation move, he limited the access of all citizens to their accounts and hard-earned money.

He said noted economist Jean Dreze has described demonetisation in a booming economy like shooting at the tyres of a racing car. He said Jean Dreze has rightly pointed out that the sudden move to demonetize high-value currency notes has created a scary situation for people who live on the margin of subsistence. He said that the Prime Minister has made the move without creating any alternatives to replace almost 86% of currency in higher denomination. He condemned the Prime Minister for conducting a surgical strike on all citizens of the country. He said that the move seems to have left little impact on the people having black money.

The TPCC Chief also sought to know as to what transpired in the meeting between Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and the Prime Minister and how it would benefit people of Telangana. He also alleged that the Chief Minister was trying to cover up his economic failures under demonitisation move. He said Telangana State was already deep into debts much before the demonitisation move and KCR now found a new excuse to delay clearance of crop loans, fee reimbursement and other dues.

He also slammed the Chief Minister over his new posh bungalow which was constructed by wasting over Rs. 40 crore of public money. He said that the cost of CM's new house would be nearly Rs. 150 crore if land price is also taken into account. Accusing KCR of wasting public money to satisfy his 'Vasthu' beliefs, he said such wastage was not permissible in a socialist and democratic country like India.

MLA D.K. Aruna, ex-Union Minister Balram Naik, ex-minister D. Sridhar Babu and other senior leaders were also present in the press conference.