Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) members staged a dharna in front of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) office here on Friday protesting against the demonetisation move undertaken by the Narendra Modi Government two years back.
Addressing a gathering, PCC president Niranjan Patnaik demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologise to people as the demonetisation move, undertaken ‘hurriedly and arbitrarily’, failed to eliminate black money.
The announcement to ban high-value currency notes was followed by prolonged cash shortage for weeks, which created significant disruption throughout the economy, he said.
"Demonetisation is one of the arbitrary decisions taken by the Prime Minister. This was aimed to curtail shadow economy and illegal activity and terrorism. But where is that black money,” wanted to know Patnaik. People seeking to change the old currency notes had to stand in long queues and several deaths occurred in different places due to the heavy rush, Patnaik said.