Hyderabad: Expressing strong support to demonetisation, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao today urged the Centre to move towards the "total clean up" of the system to eliminate all forms of black money, including those held in the form of diamonds, gold and shares.
"I once again appeal (to the Centre) you shall not stop here, you should go for total clean up...till poverty is reduced and everybody leads a dignified life," he said in the Legislative Assembly in his concluding remarks during a debate on demonetisation.
Rao, who made a statement marking the beginning of the debate on demonetisation, said his government whole-heartedly supports the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in the interest of the nation.
"The Government of Telangana also suggests that besides the currency notes, black money held in the form of diamonds, gold, shares and foreign currency and the black money generation through crony capitalism and flow of black money into the country through money laundering from British Virgin Islands, Mauritius, Singapore should be regulated effectively," the Chief Minister said.
"The Government of Telangana is of the firm belief that these efforts to eliminate black money should continue till the goal of complete transformation of the nation is realised," Rao added.
The Chief Minister said for realising the objective of eliminating the increase in black money, preventing the use of counterfeit currency, total elimination of political corruption, total cleansing of the political system, tackling terrorism and extremism and thereby building a corruption-free India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on November 8 that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in circulation would no longer be legal tender.
Referring to the comments made by MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi that the ruling TRS "should not take up the cause" of BJP, Rao said there is no politics in his support to the Centre on demonetisation. "We will fight if it is not in public interest. There is no politics," he said.
Referring to the inconvenience caused to people in accessing hard cash following demonetisation, he recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself has sought 50 days time before things settled down and future course of action is announced. "There is some difficulty. I appeal to the people, the decision is not ours. There is nothing we (state government) can do. We have to follow (the decision)," he said.
Admitting that the revenues of the state government would fall, like any other state in the country, consequent to demonetisation, Rao, however, said the intelligent thing to do for the state government is to encourage people to go for cashless transactions in a big way.
The impact on the revenues of the state in some of the departments has not been "worst" as expected, he said.
Referring to the fears that cashless transactions are not safe on account of cyber crime, he said hard cash also had safety issues and that the Centre is aware of various aspects of promoting electronic transactions.
Telangana has been supplied with Rs 19,109 crore by the RBI following demonetisation, Rao said, adding that the state should get more money in smaller denomination of notes.
