Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assertions that only a handful of people were unhappy with the demonetisation drive was based on the feedback he received from 82 odd senior officers who had been dispatched across States and Union Territories to assess the impact of the note ban at the grass-roots level. In a report to the Prime Ministers’ Office (PMO), they pointed out that common people soon came to terms with the note ban decision. They also threw light on some interesting means adopted by people to mitigate the hardship caused by cash crunch.
The report revealed that people adopted a “barter” system in many rural areas of North Eastern States -- including Mizoram, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh. In some bordering areas, people even used Bhutanese and Burmese currencies to take care of their day-to-day needs. There were also instances of shopkeepers and buyers entering into a written agreement to square up outstanding payments.
Top Government sources told The Pioneer that people adopted different measures to beat the currency woes with the hope that those possessing piles of black money would face the music in near future. “This report emboldened the Prime Minister to strike hard on those involved in black money hoarding as only 15-20 per cent of the population are not happy with note ban,” the sources said.
According to sources, total of 32 teams of nearly 82 Additional Secretary and Joint Secretary-level officials as well as those working as Director or Deputy Secretary were formed to access the impact of demonetisation. Teams of three officers each visited Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab. While two-member teams visited Telangana, Kerala, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Goa and Assam, teams of one official took the stock of the situation in Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur, Andaman and Nicobar, lakshadweep, Puducherry and Sikkim.
Sources said in Assam, people along the Indo-Bhutan border had started using Bhutanese currency. It was found that the value of the Bhutanese currency had shot up by 20 to 30 per cent.
“Some villagers and tribals explained to the officers that in the absence of the Indian currency, foreign currency had become a natural choice for them. Foreign currency was used in large numbers in places where there were neither ATMs nor banks,” said the sources.
The barter system had also made a comeback in the remote villages of Uttar Pradesh. “In many villages, grains are being exchanged for vegetables and other items of daily needs,” said an officer, who was part of the team which visited UP. According to officials lead bankers have failed to provide sufficient cash to subordinate banks which led to chaos outside banks and ATMs in UP.
In Daman, Diu and lakshadweep, majority of people especially the youth, urban middle class and senior citizens were happy with demonetisation. Though there was huge shortage of cash in ATMs and banks, common people were not complaining,” sources said.