HYDERABAD: The YSR Congress has urged Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan to use his good offices to impress upon the Reserve Bank of India and the Central government to take steps to immediately release the required currency for the State.
YSRC president and Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy sought the Governor’s intervention claiming that Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who was a party to the decision on demonetisation, was not pressing the Centre for immediate release of the currency required for the State for reasons best known to him.
‘State got a pittance’
According to latest reports, a total of Rs. 60,000 crore of demonetised currency had been deposited in various banks in Andhra Pradesh, but the RBI had till date replenished Rs. 14,740 crore, just 24.5 per cent of the total deposited amount which was not at all sufficient to meet the requirements of people, Mr. Jagan said in a memorandum submitted to the Governor on Tuesday.
Pointing out that the State was essentially an agrarian economy heavily dependent on cash, he apprehended that a major disruption in the economic activity could take place unless the money deposited was fully replenished at the earliest. Though the intentions of the Central Government might be good, it appeared completely unprepared to handle the situation and when faced with the liquidity crisis, it was talking about migration to a cashless society.
Outlining the difficulties faced by the common man in obtaining money, he said any reform process like migration from 90 per cent cash-based economy to 100 per cent digital transactions involving such huge proportions would take time. “We cannot do this in a hurry. The reform process has to be humane and painless,” he said.
