STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU/SRINAGAR: Congress on Thursday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologise to the nation for the “suffering” caused to the people by note-ban when he speaks on New Year’s eve and vowed to hold country-wide protests from January 6.
The All-India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary Ambika Soni in Jammu, termed demonetisation the biggest scam aimed at “benefiting big industrialist,” and asked Modi how much black money has been recovered after the move.
“It (demonetisation) is the biggest scam, aimed at benefiting few industrialists of the country. As now the government claims that all the old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes have returned to the banks, the Prime Minister should give us an idea of how much black money has been recovered in the process”, She told reporters here.
Soni said the country wants to know on whose advice the decision of scrapping the old currency notes was taken.
“The government should answer the five questions that were raised by Rahul Gandhi and let the country know who were the economists the Prime Minister consulted or was it just a dream he got and implemented, inflicting trouble on 125 crore people”, she said.
She said the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said demonetisation has affected the country’s growth by “over two per cent”.
“The Prime Minister should tell how much unemployment it has caused,” Soni said.
She said demonetisation has also affected the farming sector as the farmers are not getting seeds in time thus delaying the sowing season.
She claimed the UPA government had signed treaties with over 130 countries to facilitate the exchange of information on financial irregularities. While BJP had only made “false premises” to the people.
“Why did you (BJP) promise to bring the black money in one year and … put 15 lakh rupees in everybody’s account, we never made such false promise… You fooled the people and now you are playing jokes and games with the economy of the country,” she said. The Congress General Secretary also asked the BJP to come clean on the entries in Birla and Sahara dairies.
Soni said that Congress would launch a Jan Andolan to press Modi Govt. to remove restrictions on withdrawals from banks after 30th December besides 18% interest on the deposits of people for the period between Nov.8 to Dec. 30. Stop commission on cashless transactions. Deposit Rs 25000 in the bank account of each BPL family. Congress also demanded reduction in the rates of ration under Food Security, double the wages of MGNREGA Workers and payment of wages at the rates of Minimum wages to each labour/worker from 1st November 2016 till 31st March 2017. Small and medium shop keepers and entrepreneurs should be given 50 per cent rebate in the income tax and sales tax. She said that Congress would launch a campaign to seek white paper from the Government and reply top these queries from Modi Government in and outside Parliament.
‘Demonetisation’ is asurgical strike onIndia’s poor, farmers, labour, shopkeepers, small businesses, middle class and the entire unorganized sector. By wiping away 86 per cent of currency in circulation on 8th November, 2016; Narendra Modi has hit at 99 per cent of honest hardworking Indians, while presumably targeting one per cent black money hoarderers. India’s ‘wheel of development’ has come to a standstill plunging the entire country in a state of ‘economic anarchy’.
Kolkatta Unit of BJP was caught depositing Rs.500/Rs.1000 notes running into Rs 3 crore on the day of demonetisation in A/c No. 554510034. Despite repeated demands, BJP and RSS have not made public details of money deposited between 1st March, 2016 and 8th November, 2016 in its bank accounts across the country.
JKPCC Chief G.A Mir, Peerzada Mohd Sayeed Ex-President PCC, Sham Lal Sharma Sr. Vice President, Rigzin Jora CLP Leader, Jugal Kishore Sharma, Madan Lal Sharma Ex-MP, Tara Chand Ex-Dy C.M, Aijaz Ahmed Khan, Mula Ram, G.M Saroori, Haji Abdul Rashid, Raman Bhalla, G.N Monga, Vikar Rasool, Asgar Karbalai, Ch. Mohd. Akram, Usman Majid, Gulzar Wani, Deldam Namgyal, Sham Lal Bhagat and Kanta Bhan were also present in the press conference.
In Srinagar, spokesman Meem Afzal said the Prime Minister “has so far not had a word of sympathy for the victims, forget about an apology”. “But we expect him to apologise when he speaks on the issue at the end of the 50 days he had sought,” he told reporters in Srinagar. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to create two crore new jobs every year but only 1.5 lakh jobs have been created in two and half years. After announcing demonetisation last month, at least 10 crore people have been rendered jobless,” he claimed. Afzal claimed as many as 11 crore man-hours were spent every day in queues outside banks and ATMs as people struggled to withdraw their own money. He said the Congress party demands an apology from the Prime Minister to the nation for these deaths and also compensation to the next of kin of the victims. Afzal said the Congress party also demands that 18 per cent interest be paid to the people on the money they have deposited in the banks.
