Bengal intellectuals to submit memorandum to RBI

A section of intellectuals from West Bengal will submit a memorandum at the Reserve Bank of India's regional office here on Friday in protest the negative impacts of demonetisation.

They criticised demonetisation dubbing it a "failed move to curb black money" that has made the situation "worse than the Emergency".

"We will submit a memorandum at the RBI office in Kolkata on Friday afternoon expressing our concerns about the situation even after 50 days of the demonetisation," poet Subodh Sarkar said on Thursday.

The memorandum will also be sent to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and President Pranab Mukherjee, he said.

"The situation in the nation is worse than the emergency. The central government has pushed us towards a primitive age in the name of digitisation," said Indologist Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri, who recently won the Sahitya Akademi Award.

Economist Abhirup Sarkar said demonetisation can never be an effective move to curb black money as a very little amount of black money in the nation is kept in cash.

"The move is largely impacting the lower income group who deal in cash while the black money holders are mostly untouched," he said.

"The cash crunch in the nation has caused a slump in the demand and supply in Indian market. The problem is doubled as RBI is introducing with new regulations of deposit and withdrawal almost everyday," he added.

The intellectuals feared the nation would need a lot more than 50 days to recover from the crisis it has been thrown into.

"India's GDP has been impacted since the note ban. People are losing jobs at every sphere. The Prime Minister said 50 days would be enough to normalise the situation but it would take a lot more than that for the nation to recover from the crisis," said Kaushik Gupta, Ex Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University.

--IANS

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