People should not be arrested over unverified letters: Chidambaram

Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram on Monday said the government should take required measures for security of the Prime Minister but it should not make arrests on account of unverified threat letters.

An Union Ministerknew some of the Elgar Parishad activists arrested in connection with Bhima- Koregaon violence and he said they had nothing to do with Maoists, Chidambaram told reporters here.

Pune police had on Thursday told a court that a letter was seized from one of the arrested, which mentioned of a plan to "assassinate" Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"I do not think you should take all these unverified letters as though official documents put out in the Gazette of India. Such letters will float around. It is the business of the government to offer and provide complete protection to the Prime Minister of India," said Chidambaram, who has been the Union Home Minister.

"So let the government take whatever measures to provide complete, fool-proof protection to security of Prime Minister of India. We all are interested in interest of Prime Minister."

Replying to a query on the reports of currency with the public reaching a record high of over Rs 18.5 lakh crore, Chidambaram said he was happy and people cannot be denied currency for carrying on their daily lives.

"What is surprising? This is cash-less society they (BJP government) are dreaming about. The rule of thumb is currency in circulation must grow about the same rate as nominal GDP. So nominal GDP is growing at about 10-12 per cent, currency in circulation must grow at the same rate.

"I am glad that currency back in the circulation. I am all in favour for digitisation for large transactions. But you cannot deny currency to people for carrying on their daily lives. How much currency people need is not matter for government to decide. It is matter to decide for RBI having regards to the needs of people," he said.

Reacting to the Modi government's plan to hire people from private sector for Joint Secretary-level posts, Chidambaram said: "There are serious misgivings about the advertisement that has appeared. There are number questions deserved to be asked."

--IANS

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