Hyderabad: TS Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi for about an hour on Saturday, is learnt to have brought to the PM’s notice that a sense of unrest prevails among all sections of society due to the currency crisis following demonetisation. He urged the Centre to initiate currency relief measures immediately to alleviate the sufferings of common people by involving all the state governments.
Mr Rao suggested that the relief package should comprise of lifting of unnecessary restrictions on cash deposits and withdrawals. He said that cash in excess of Rs 2.5 lakh possessed by a person should not be treated as ‘black money’, but instead be termed 'unaccounted money'.
The CM noted that it’s common to hold amounts in excess of Rs 2.50 lakh in households in the form of savings, especially by women, housewives, small and medium traders, farmers etc and it’s not fair to term such savings ‘black money’ and impose restrictions on them.
Mr Rao also informed the Prime Minister that the Telangana state government suffered huge tax revenue losses of over Rs 3,000 crore with business activities coming to a halt and the real estate sector crashing down, affecting the livelihood of farmers, labourers, small time traders etc.
The CM sought a moratorium of one year on payment of loans and interest by state governments to the Centre to tide over the present crisis. Mr Rao urged the PM to hold a conference with Chief Ministers of all states at the earliest to devise ways and means to mitigate the sufferings of people on account of demonetisation.
The Chief Minister also asked that more notes of lower denomination be sent to all states on a war footing to overcome the problem of inadequate change. He said the launch of Rs 2,000 currency notes has only added to the woes of common people as traders are not accepting the note due to shortage of change.
Mr Rao urged the Prime Minister to lift restrictions on cash transactions of farmers, otherwise it would adversely impact the ongoing rabi season.
