From claiming the credit for the idea of scrapping the big value currency notes, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has come full circle and expressed his pain and anguish over the sufferings of the people due to demonetisation.
Naidu who held a video conference on Sunday with the district collectors and officials of the Reserve Bank of India, State level Banking Committee and the State finance department to review the problems of the people facing in exchanging the currency, said that it was very painful to see that the problem was yet to be solved even after 12 days of the decision.
“It is first time in my political life that a problem remains unsolved for such a long time”, he said. “From the poor to the rich everybody is suffering due to cancellation of the big currency notes”, he said.
Earlier on the day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the demonetisation of Rs 1000 and Rs 500 currency notes, Naidu had said that he had advised the Prime Minister to cancel the big currency notes to eradicate the problem of black money.
“Bankers and officials should find a solution to the sufferings of the poor people because of the demonetisation”, Naidu said. He wanted all the major banks to open call centers to help the people on war footing and provide the necessary information. There should be consistent coordination and an effective action plan to face the crisis situation, he observed.
Naidu noted that the Rs 2,000 crore cash provided to his State included Rs 4,000 crore in Rs 100 denomination.
Underlining the need of coordination among all the banks, Naidu said that Government will issue notices to the banks who were not abiding by the orders. He also asked the police department to ensure that there is no break down of law and order because of the long queues at the bank counters and outside the ATMs.
According to the Telugu Desam sources, the party leaders have been instructed by the top leadership that they should stop claiming the credit for the idea of scrapping the big currency notes in view of the unending sufferings of the people all over the country. The party now fears that claiming credit will be counter productive and damage it.
In a reflection of the change, the party was now voicing its protest and even the party president Chandrababu Naidu saying that while only 1% people had black money, 99% people were being made to suffer.
In this context the Ministers and officials of Andhra Pradesh have started expressing concern that the demonetisation was having a crippling impact on the business in the State and the State revenue had dropped shortly.