The teams of officials despatched by the Centre to make a first-hand assessment of the ground reality post demonetisation met a cross-section of people across the State on Wednesday.
One of the Central teams visited various villages in Tiruchi and Perambalur districts and listened to the grievances of farmers and traders. The team members also visited a few Primary Agricultural Cooperative Credit Societies (PACCS) in Tiruchi district and interacted with the farmers and account holders.
Praveen Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Human Resource and Development, gave a patient hearing to the farmers of Irungalur in Tiruchi district as they narrated the ordeal they have been forced to undergo due to the demonetisation.
Almost all of them highlighted the undue delay in distribution of crop loans to the farmers.
“Demonetisation has almost crippled the agricultural operations in villages. We totally depend upon co-operative societies for farm activities. Almost 15 days have passed since I applied for a crop loan of Rs. 75,000. However, officials refuse to entertain it citing a cash crunch,” said J. Sesuraj, a farmer.
“The co-operative society has transacted no business for the past one week. It is open only today. I am not able to withdraw money,” said R. Perumal, an account holder of the society at Irungalur.
R. Saveriyar (73), who has deposited about Rs. 7 lakh in the same society, told Mr. Kumar that he was badly in need of at least Rs. 25,000 for undergoing an eye surgery. But, he could not withdraw it in spite of repeated attempts, as society officials had told him that there was no cash flow.
Another farmer L. Robert Benjamin of Irungalur told Mr. Kumar that just 15 days were left for conducting the house-warming ceremony for his newly built house.
“I need at least Rs. 50,000 for the function. But, I have withdrawn just Rs. 6,000 in the last three days. It is agonising,” he said.
Impact on SMEs
In Coimbatore, Union Urban Development deputy secretary M. Janaki had an interaction with the representatives of industries, farmers, milk producers and bankers for nearly 90 minutes.
The small and medium-scale enterprises are dependent on the micro units to do job works. After demonetisation, these units are unable to pay wages. They do not have cash for day-to-day industrial activities. If the units are unable to supply components, the entire production chain will be hit. If the situation continues for another one week, industrial activity will be completely hit, MSME representatives warned.
Vanitha Mohan, president, Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Coimbatore, said the cash crunch only seemed to be getting worse. “There is no point in giving Rs. 2,000 notes, as no one is able to use it. We need smaller denomination notes and they seem to be in short supply.”
Southern India Mills’ Association chairman M. Senthil Kumar said the textile industry was hit on the retail and raw material fronts.
“Cotton farmers are not bringing cotton to the market as they are unable to get cash payment for their produce. Winter sale is completely affected for the retailers. This has hurt the entire production continuum impacting the livelihood of thousands of people across the value chain,” he said.
Bankers said they were handling just about 10 per cent of the normal cash transaction.
In Tirupur, officials briefed the team of the cash position in banks and explained the steps taken to calibrate the ATMs to dispense the new Rs. 2,000 and Rs. 500 notes.
Mr. Kumar told The Hindu that the teams would submit a report to the Centre based on ground-level inputs on Friday.
( With inputs from R. Vimal Kumar)
