Strongly criticising the Central government’s decision to apply indelible ink marks on the fingers of people who exchange demonetised currency notes in banks, DMK treasurer M.K. Stalin on Tuesday such actions amounted to a government suspecting its citizens. He urged the Centre to immediately withdraw the decision.
“The Centre’s move has created apprehensions in the minds of the people that a democratically elected government had deviated from its path. The dictatorial announcement of the government is highly condemnable. Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a pledge placing faith in 125 crore people of India, and now he has resorted to a move that has inflicted great suffering on them. It is unacceptable in a democratic country,” he said in a statement.
Mr. Stalin said when Mr. Modi announced his plans of demonetisation of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes to eradicate black money, people believed that the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India would have made adequate arrangements. “But subsequent developments have proved that the government has not done anything in advance for the smooth implementation of its plan. People are not able to draw money freely even from the ATMs,” he said.
Mr. Stalin pointed out that the regular schedule of people was disrupted as they had been forced to stand in queues in front of banks and ATMs and daily wagers had borne the brunt of the government’s decision.
Meets bank customers
Earlier in the day; Mr Stalin had an interaction with customers of the State Bank of Travancore at Nallur in Thiruparankundram in Madurai district, who waited in a long queue to exchange their currencies.
He was campaigning for the DMK candidate in the Thiruparankundram Assembly constituency and stopped his vehicle when he saw a queue of people outside the bank. They told him that the demonetisation process had caused enormous hardship and they were forced to wait for hours to exchange Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes.
Mr. Stalin met the bank officials and gathered information about the difficulties in exchanging the old notes. He requested the officials to take measures to help people, said a DMK press release.
Calling for withdrawal of the decision, he said such actions amounted to govt. suspecting its citizens
