[caption id="attachment_85868" align="alignnone" width="300"]
Naga woman holds placard at the rally against demonetisation during a protest rally by opposition parties across the country, organised by Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee in Dimapur, Nagaland on Monday, 28 November 2016. [/caption]
DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 28 : The Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) on Monday protested against what it claimed was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s egotistic diktat of demonetisation, and demanded rollback of the now devalued old banknotes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 “till new notes are sufficiently inducted”.
The scene of the protest on Monday morning at Dimapur was the Supermarket area, adjacent to Hotel Saramati. During the protest, they signed a petition which would be sent to President Pranab Mukherjee.
“The egotistic diktat of demonetisation has thrown the economy of the country out of proportion and has particularly affected remote areas in the state of Nagaland, as the population hardly uses plastic money for daily transactions. Every citizen’s and family’s economy has been imbalance.
“The diktat has also caused loss of fortunes to business communities. Insufficient new and lower denomination notes and imposition of withdrawal limits has nearly paralysed economic activities,” the memorandum reads.
The rural population of Nagaland, it has stated, were most affected by it because they were not used to banking systems since most banks were located away from the villages. “Failure to bring black money is not the fault of the commoners but the weakness of the government of the day and for the reason, the commoners should not be punished”.
Calling on the President to intervene, the NPCC placed two demands: to monetise Rs 500 and Rs 1000 banknotes till new notes are sufficiently inducted, and open banking services in rural areas to facilitate the people living in villages.
According to NPCC president, K Therie, the demonetisation move was poorly-planned and executed without “assessing the impact”. Black money, he said, was not with the “130 crore common people” in India. “It is with some corporate (sic) and corrupt politicians”.
For the common people, he said, their savings – regardless of being kept at the bank or not – was hard-earned. “Why should he (Modi) restrict the use of our hard-earned money? We do not have black money,” Therie claimed.
‘State govt’s blind endorsement’
In Kohima, the District Congress held its protest rally at the capital’s Congress Bhavan. Addressing the gathering, NPCC general secretary, Medokul Sophie talked about the situation resulting from demonetization of Rs1000 and Rs 500 currency notes in the country including Nagaland. He said the public, especially the poorer sections and rural based, were suffering the most.
He accused the BJP of forgetting that 34% of the country’s population was without proper clothes and food.
They should first give food and proper clothes to the population before demonetisation, he stated. He also remarked that 65% of the population of the country does not have bank accounts and questioned on how those people could have cashless money or e-wallet.
Maintaining that Rs 500 and Rs 1000 denomination notes comprised of more than 80% of the currency notes in use, he said the demand of the Congress was that new notes be issued sufficiently before the demonetisation.
Sophie also said Nagaland has about 100 banks and each bank would now have to cater to at least 20,000 people.
He also criticized the government of Nagaland for lauding the BJP government on the demonetisation without much of a blink. His scathing remark towards this was that the present ruling party was "blindly appreciating" the decision without understanding the plight of the villagers who do not even own bank accounts.
The KDCC also submitted a memorandum addressed to the president of India through the DC Kohima.
