Gujarat govt demands more cash, relief for farmers

The Gujarat government today asked the Centre to pump in more cash into the state banking system to meet the demand for valid currency notes following the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 bills.

A representation in this regard was made by Chief Secretary J N Singh during his meeting with a three-member Central delegation, headed by senior IAS officer Guruprasad Mohapatra, at Gandhinagar.

Guruprasad, Chairman of Airports Authority of India, along with two other senior bureaucrats, is in Gujarat to undertake assessment of the demonetisation drive in the state and provide feedback to the Centre.

Yesterday, the Central government issued an order asking senior bureaucrats to visit states and assess impact of the anti-black money measure announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8.
 

Mohapatra, a Gujarat cadre IAS officer, and his team held a detailed discussion with Singh before leaving for field visits in different parts of the state.

After the meeting, Singh told the media that the Gujarat government has sought infusion of more cash into the state banking system to ease woes of citizens looking for exchange of invalid notes or withdrawal of money from their accounts.

It also urged the Central team to allow District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) to handle cash transaction for farmers.

"This delegation is in Gujarat to assess the ground situation such as availability of cash in banks. It will visit various APMCs (Agricultural Produce Market Committees) in towns and villages. The delegation is also entrusted with the task of assessing the overall business and trade scenario after demonetisation," said Singh.

"In our meeting, we have requested them to provide more cash, particularly new currency notes. To ease the problems faced by farmers, we urged them to consider involving DCCBs in undertaking transactions as most farmers have their accounts in such banks," said Singh.

A week back, the Reserve Bank barred all Gujarat-based DCCBs from exchanging or accepting defunct currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, a move protested by many cooperative leaders who claimed this would paralyse the rural banking system in in the state.