 "Andhra CM Naidu asked for demonetisation of Rs 500, Rs 1,000 notes in October")
It may or many not be a coincidence but Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu's wish about demonetising Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes got fulfilled within a month after he wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking the same.
In a letter addressed to the Prime Minister on October 12, 2016, Naidu asked for the scrapping of the higher denomination notes to check the use of black money.
"Since most parallel economy transactions are done by using Rs 500 and Rs 100 notes, demonetising them will make it difficult for hoarders to do large cash transactions and significantly reduce black money in the system. Demonetisation would leave currency hoarders with no option, though the same is much more difficult to enforce..," he pointed out in his letter.
The chief minister hailed the Centre's steps over curbing black money, including the recent Income Declaration Scheme which had resulted in a total disclosure of more than Rs 65,000 crore income across India.
"Within the country, the black money is used to bribe voters during elections, for benami transactions, in a misuse of productive resources, in fostering antisocial activities etc. The share of Rs 1000 notes in the stock of currency in circulation at the end of FY 2014-15 was a whopping 39% with Rs 500 notes accounting for a further 45% of currency stock, making a total of 84% of the money in circulation," Naidu said in the letter.
Just before his letter, there was a political controversy surrounding the reported disclosure of Rs 10,000 crore in undisclosed income filed by a single individual in Hyderabad. Naidu's party men accused opposition leader Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy of using the Income Declaration Scheme, which had ended on September 30, 2016.
Reddy also wrote a letter to the prime minister seeking disclosure of names of all those who had utilised the Centre's scheme among other things.