Congress leader Pavan Bansal today attacked the Centre for demonetising Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes without proper preparations andsaid "it is surgical strike against the people and not the black money".
"The decision has forced the people to queue outside the banks and ATMs but it has failed to unearth black money but caused harassment to entire country", he told mediapersons here.
The former Union minister said the "trade has come to halt, unemployment has increased, industrial growth has retarded" due the demonetisation and it would increase corruption and harm the economy.
The decision was taken in haste without considering the fallout and as result, the government had modified its instructions 60-70 times since November 8 when the decision to scrap the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes was taken, Bansal said adding that "it also exposed the insensitiveness of the government towards the common man".
Taking a dig at Modi for batting for cashless economy, Bansal said that how the government plans to achieve itwhen 95 per cent people did not have debit or credit cards, only 14-lakh swipe machines were available against demand of 2-crore machinesand 75 per cent population was not using banks.
He said that the government had claimed that it would block funding of terrorists but new Rs 2000 notes have reached the terrorists and alleged that the government was keen on "adjusting the black money of black marketers" and harassing the common man.
He said that there was acute cash crunch in the country as new Rs 500 notes have not reached the banks and most of the ATMs are either cash-empty or non-functional.
People are struggling to get cash and 80 persons have so far lost their lives standing in queues for withdrawing money, he claimed.
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