It was a day when the differences between Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi and Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy came to the fore on administrative matters, at least when it came to implementing the Union Government’s directive to promote cashless transaction.
While on Tuesday morning, Mr. Narayanasamy, at a hurriedly convened press conference to brief about the directive by the Ministry of Home Affairs, made it clear on the practical difficulties to implement cash transactions on a digital mode, Ms. Bedi in the evening convened a meeting of government employees to push for cashless transactions as it was the “way forward to bring down corruption.”
The Chief Minister came down heavily on the Union Government for choosing the UT for its project on cashless transactions at a time when people are grappling with cash crunch following demonetisation drive. “For every scheme, the Centre wants to take Puducherry as a model State. An elected government can only accept what the people want and we will not allow the Centre to impose their decisions. There is no basic infrastructure to implement the programme. The ban on higher denomination notes has hit every sector and the revenue of the government has taken a beating. Even developed countries have failed to move to a cashless society,” he said.
Mr. Narayanasamy said in his telephonic conversation with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh he had informed UT’s inability to implement the directive at present. “I have called him because some people are using the Home Minister’s name on all issues,” he said.
Just hours after, Ms. Bedi at a meeting attended by hundreds of government employees gave a clarion call to shift to digital transaction and to personally propagate the concept.
“For everything we go to Centre, it is time to work in alignment. Puducherry government will only do cashless transactions. You practice it, then spread the message to family, friends and neighbourhood. Things have changed and this is the way forward to fight corruption,” was her message to the government staff.
Quoting Senior Superintendent of Police, Law and Order, Rajiv Ranjan, who spoke at the meeting, she said there was not a single incident related to cash crunch.
“It means people are ready to accept the decision. They stand patiently in queue to get cash,” she said.
