Demonetisation issue dominated the debate in the Maharashtra Assembly today with the Opposition Congress-NCP slamming the Centre over the move, saying it has caused severe hardship to people and harmed the rural economy.
Refuting the Opposition contention, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said this step was necessary to crack down on black money. However, he admited it has put certain restrictions on co-operative sector.
"The previous government had failed to ratify a United Nations treaty on black money which was lying from 2004 to 2011.
"It was signed by the then BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, thereby allowing access to bank accounts of all Indians in foreign banks. Not only this, India signed an independent treaty with tax heavens and USA," he said.
Fadnavis said he would lead a delegation from the state which would include the Finance Minister and Leaders of Opposition from both the Houses tomorrow to Delhi to meet Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to apprise him of the situation.
The opposition members had dared Fadnavis to use his "clout" to prevail upon the Centre for lifting the curbs imposed on transactions by district co-operative banks, saying they had compounded the woes of the people.
Leading the opposition onslaught, former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan (Congress) said the decision to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes was taken with an eye on Assembly polls in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
Stating that it had pushed the rural economy to the "verge of collapse", he accused the government of promoting foreign linked payment gateways.
Picking holes in the Centre's push to usher in a cashless economy, Chavan said nowhere in the world has such kind of economy been fully implemented.
Chavan claimed former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had warned against the demonetisation.
NCP leader Ajit Pawar said Opposition would not mind if the Chief Minister skips the proceedings of the House and leave for Delhi to meet the Central leadership over demonetisation "mess".
Defending the move, Fadnavis said the decision was necessary to crack down on black money, and blamed the previous government for its "lapses" in initiating measures to curb the menace.
On post-demonetisation steps, he said state government will soon launch secured e-service "MahaWallet", the first in the country, which he said will be safe and people-friendly, especially to those without internet literacy.
(Reopens BOM 14)
The Chief Minister said about 1,000 college students will be trained as volunteers and sent across the state to train people in rural areas to do transactions through mobile.
Fadnavis invoked Dalit icon B R Ambedkar, saying he had recommended demonetisation every 10 years.
"Ambedkar had said in 1923 that Indian currency should be changed every 10 years," he said.
On the surprise move, he said there was nothing wrong in maintaining secrecy about demonetisation as any leak would have cost heavily.
"It all started two years back. The steps like digital payments etc. Were taken in this direction two years back," he said.
Fadnavis said about Rs 23 crore has been deposited in Jan Dhan bank accounts and the authorities are examining who are the owners of the money. "A decision is also likely that the Jan Dhan account holders can keep the money without valid sources," he said.
"There were four main factors behind the demonetisation decision. They are: illegal funding of terror groups, (need for) cashless economy, elimination of fake currency and pumping of fake currency which was the biggest problem," he said.
So far, country has received approximately Rs 11 lakh crore which was likely to touch Rs 14 lakh crore.
"The banks will invest (this money) in projects and subsequently the rate of interest will fall. Municipal bodies across the state have recovered various dues totalling Rs 1,000 crore (post demonetisation) while the State Electricity Board has received to the tune of Rs 700 crore," he said.
