At the direction of the Congress leadership, thousands of Delhi Congress workers, led by DPCC president Shri Ajay Maken, take out a “Jan Aakrosh March” from Mandi House to Parliament House
At the direction of the Congress leadership, thousands of Delhi Congress workers, led by DPCC president Shri Ajay Maken, take out a “Jan Aakrosh March” from Mandi House to Parliament House to protest against the poorly planned and executed demonetization drive.
· Without proper preparation, the badly executed demonetization drive creates tremendous hardship to the poor and the common people, as cash crunch has driven them to a dead end.
· An unending stream of Congress workers and common people, stretching from Mandi House to Parliament Street, participate in the Jan Aakrosh March, with the youth, women and the old expressing their anguish and anger as life has come to a dead end for the ordinary people.
· Police stop the Jan Aakrosh March at Parliament Street after the two-km long Congress workers cover 4kms, shouting slogans and beating canisters and utensils to wake up the sleeping Modi Government, to the plight of the people.
NEW DELHI, Nov. 28—At the direction of the Congress leadership, thousands of Delhi Congress workers, under the leadership of DPCC president Shri Ajay Maken, today held a “Jan Aakrosh March” from Mandi House to Parliament House to protest against the faulty planning and implementation of the demonetization drive by the Modi government, which has put the poor and the common people to unimaginable suffering and difficulties, pushing the country to a virtual financial emergency and total chaos.
Shri Maken said the common people have been queuing up before banks and ATMs for hours together to draw their own money while the real black money hoarders are sitting cosily in their homes. He said the street vendors, small shop keepers and daily wage earners were on the verge of deprivation, due to cash crunch.
Addressing the media, Shri Maken said the Congress Party, at the direction of Congress president Smt. Sonia Gandhi and Congress vice-president Shri Rahul Gandhi, has observed “Jan Aakrosh Diwas” throughout the country to wake up the sleeping Modi Government. Shri Maken said there was a big scam in the demonetization exercise, which has badly affected honest people while the rich and big industalists have been leading an easy life.
An undending stream of Congress workers, numbering over 30,000, stretching from Mandi House to Parliament Street, shouted slogans, beat empty plates and canisters, and carried playcards with slogans. The slogans included “Note Hamara, Adesh Tumara, Nahi Chalegi, Nahi Chalegi”, “Modi Sarkar ki sangadith loot, apna paisa nikalne ki nahi hai chhoot”, “Modiji ki note bandhi, apne paise pe khyon pabandhi”, etc. The over two-km long sea of Congress workers, who included thousands of young people, in the march was a clear indication of the anguish and desperation of the poor and common people, as the badly executed demonetization drive has brought life to a dead-end for them. The Congress workers and leaders were stopped by the police at Parliament Street, as they surged towards Parliamkent House.
Besides Shri Ajay Maken, prominent others who participated in the Jan Aakrosh March were AICC in-charge of Delhi Shri P.C.Chacko, chief spokesperson Smt. Sharmistha Mukherjee, AICC secretaries Shri Manish Chatrath and Shri Naseeb Singh, former MPs Shri Sajjan Kumar, Ramesh Kumar and Shri Mahabal Mishra, Shri Bhram Yadav, Shri Chattar Singh, Mahmood Zhia, Dineshar Tyagi, Hari Shankar Gupta, Dr Narendra Nath, and leaders of the Opposition in the MCDs Mukesh Goel, Farhad Suri and Varyam Kaur.
Shri Maken said demonetization has brought the country to a virtual halt, as small traders and business people have been rendered jobless, and many others who run small businesses find it extremely difficult to ply their trade due to severe cash crunch. Shri Maken said people have been wasting their time outside banks and ATMs in long queues with the hope of drawing their own money but most of them have to return home empty handed as the bank chests quickly get drained out of all cash, as the Modi Government has totally failed to fulfil the cash requirements of the people.
Shri Maken asked “what sense does it make to waste Rs 12,000 crore ‘investment’ in printing the notes just to put out of circulation counterfeit notes worth Rs 400 crores, not to mention the additional cost of printing new ones”?Shri Maken said according to experts, the decision of demonetization on 8th November has led to withdrawal of 86 % currency in circulation. As a result, 1,658 crore notes of Rs 500 and Rs 668 crore notes of Rs 1000, i.e a total of 2327 crore notes valuing about Rs 14.08 lakh crore, have been withdrawn. He said the Rs 1000 notes are printed by Bhartiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Private Limited, and it has a capacity to print 133 crore notes per month in two shifts. Shri Maken said even if three shifts were to work, the company can print 200 crore notes per month. If this Government company were to print new Rs 2000 notes as against the old Rs 1000 notes, the entire operation will take three and a half months. He said the Rs 500 notes are printed by the ‘Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited’, which has a capacity to print 100 crore notes per month. “If this capacity is doubled overnight, it will still take nearly eight months or more to print 1658 crore notes of RS 500”, Shri Maken noted.
Shri Maken said the long queues outside ATMs are not going to end any time soon either, as there are only 2 lakh ATMs for 125 crore people in the country, and only 22,250 ATMs have been recalibrated and upgraded ever since the demonetization drive began. “If this figure is correct, it will take 110 days to recalibrate and upgrade all the 2 lakh ATMs”, Shri Maken pointed out.He said there was no sign of ending the people’s woes despite the Modi Government changing the rules and directives on demonetization 18 times in the first 9 days, though Modi himself was shying away from explaining the reasons for putting people to so much hardship due to the faulty execution of demonetisation.
Shri Maken said through demonetization, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has been robbing the poor to help a few crony capitalists. He said the major percentage of cash money belongs to honest and hard-working people who genuinely fall below the income tax bracket, and demonetization is hitting them the hardest. He said there are going to be several short and long-term fallouts of this policy, and some of the negative impacts are already showing. He said demonetization has badly affected farmers, small and medium industries. Shri Maken also cautioned that demonetization is going to majorly hit the informal sector that accounts for nearly 40% of India’s GDP, but provides almost 80% of employment. He said the informal sector functions primarily on cash transactions, and it’s going to hit hard the poorest sections of the society like daily wage labourers, street vendors, farm labourers etc.
Shri Maken said due to unemployment and cash crunch, there was reverse migration, as the poor peole are finding it difficult to make a living in Delhi now. Shri Maken said Shri Modi’s idea of a “cashless society” was a utopian idea, which is very impractical to be implemented in India, and here again, the poor and the common people would be the worst affected. Shri Maken emphasised that demonetization is the biggest scam of independent India, and a JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee) probe should be ordered to unearth the whole truth, as the BJP leaders seemed to be privy to the move before it was announced by Modi.