capacity of all four printing facilities…if they work round-the-clock for every month is 300 crore. So, to print 2,400 crore notes it will take eight months.
“We are now coming to the end of three months (since demonetisation was announced)…half of the ATMs are not working…most ATMs do not have currency,” Chidambaram alleged.
Citing seizure of new notes across the country, the senior Congress leader asked, “How did the new Rs 2,000 bundles reach wrong hands…how did they get the new currency notes…it is the biggest scam of 2016. Ordinary people could not get their own money.
“They (government) said this (demonetisation) is to put an end to corruption. I look at the new notes….is it written anywhere on these that they are not valid for giving bribe,” Chidambaram quipped, adding, “The person taking bribe in old notes will now do so in new currency.”
The Congress leader said due to demonetisation, thousands of people were put to misery.
“Everyday, 11 crore people are standing in queues for hours to take out their own money. Thousands of farmers have been affected…every commodity price crashed. There are 45 crore people in this country who depend on daily income,” he said.
“Manual labourers and others… for four to six weeks had no work…the government does not utter a word of giving compensation to such people and they (Centre) have started talking about cashless…” said Chidambaram.
Further explaining his stand against demonetisation, the former union minister said, “80 per cent transactions in Germany and Austria is cash-based, in Australia it is 60 per cent, Canada 56 per cent and US 46 per cent, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi says India will go 100 per cent cashless.”
All these are attempts to confuse and deceive people, he alleged.
“Did people ask for demonetisation and cashless society?…These are serious issues we must take to the people. Did BJP say before elections that they will demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes? They said they will put Rs 15 lakhs in people’s accounts, but now they are not allowing you to take out your own money,” he charged.
“We delivered 7.5 per cent average growth over 10 years (under UPA rule). Here they (NDA) have adversely impacted India’s growth,” Chidambaram added.
(This article has not been edited by DNA’s editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
Source: dnaindia.com