Congress leader Shabbir flays Centre’s stand

Nizamabad: Mohammad Ali Shabbir, Leader of the Opposition in the State Legislative Council, on Sunday described demonetisation as a ‘thoughtless action’ taken by Central Government which plunged the entire country into a deep financial crisis.
Addressing the Congress party activists who participated in a dharna here, he claimed that all the economists in the country had opposed scrapping of big currency notes. Ali accused the Centre of causing hardship and confusion among the people by frivolous decisions following demonetisation.

The senior Congress and former Minister said that the people had faced cash problems because of the government’s failure to take alternative steps while opting for demonetisation. “The new currency notes introduced by the Centre were being viewed with suspicion by the people and caused loss of faith in the RBI”, bhe added. Ali alleged that only the poor and the middle classes and not the rich, who were found waiting at banks and ATMs for withdrawing cash.

He attributed motive to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar changing his stand on demonetisation after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi as initially he had opposed the Centre’s decision to devalue Rs.500 and Rs1,000 notes. “KCR is supporting Modi only for securing some personal benefits”, Ali alleged. He said Modi failed to reply to the questions raised by the people, but was making tall claims while visiting foreign countries.

Referring to the propagation of cashless transactions, he asserted that no country in the world has 100 per cent cashless payment system, wondering how it would be possible in a predominant rural country like India. This was more so when the rich themselves were facing problems in utilising cards for making payments. In this scenario, he questioned, how the poor could use cards for ensuring cashless payments, while speaking to The Hans India.