He further said people are standing in “ATM and Bank” queues for hours. She came to the bank with Rs 500 notes, got the mandatory form filled, put her thumb impression on the form and exchanged her money.
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Modi said he was aware of the hardships being faced by people in the wake of his demonetisaion decision.
“I am aware you are facing difficulties…”
“I am aware of what kind of people and forces are against me right now”.
His appeal is viewed as a counteroffensive to blunt the opposition’s move to corner the government over the demonetization exercise. “Now, he is asking for 50 days”, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal told the media here.
A PIL was filed in the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad by advocate Pusala Venkata Krishnaiah, who alleged that a sufficient time frame had not been given for the transition and it would create unprecedented chaos and panic among the people. Meanwhile, Modi refused the Opposition demand to rollback the demonetisation at a meeting of the BJP parliamentary party executive meet, sources said.
“This is a fight to end corruption and dishonesty”, Modi said at a gathering for his birthday in Uttar Pradesh.
A delegation of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC), led by its vice-president A Gandhiraj, presented a petition to the acting Chief Secretary of the union territory, G Narendra Kumar, drawing the Centre’s attention to the “sufferings of the common man”.
Indians have until 30 December to exchange the now-defunct notes at banks.
Banks remained open over the weekend to try to ease the crunch, but were closed on Monday due to a public holiday with many ATMs across the country running out of cash.
While banks are working on ensuring cash availability through branches and ATMs in urban and semi urban areas, they are also trying to meet cash requirement in remote rural areas through micro ATMs – handheld point of sale terminals to disburse cash in locations where bank branches are not present.
CPIM leader Sitaram Yechury said, old notes should be allowed till alternative arrangements are in place.
He said the Congress was opposed to marking people exchanging now-defunct notes with indelible ink and insisted that the move meant the government is preventing people from replacing their own money.
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Official figures released earlier this year indicate that only 1 percent of Indians paid any income tax at all in 2013, and India’s “shadow economy” of black money and assets is estimated to be as much as 20 percent of the entire GDP.
