Babus to visit states to assess demonetisation drive

Senior bureaucrats working in central departments have been asked to visit states for on-the-spot assessment of demonetisation drive and to provide their feedback.
A total of 32 teams of nearly 70 senior officers--of the level of Additional Secretary and Joint Secretary-- and those working as Director or Deputy Secretary have been formed by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).
"The officers have been deputed to undertake field visits in various states for making on-the-spot assessment of the situation and to provide feedback thereon," an order said.
The officers have been drawn from various central government departments.
Teams of three officers each would visit Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, it said.

Two-member teams would visit Telangana, Kerala, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Goa and Assam. Whereas, teams of one official each would visit Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur, Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep, Puducherry and Sikkim.

"Department of Economic Affairs will decide the dates/ duration of the field visits as well as the terms of the reference for the same," the DoPT said.
The Centre had on November 8 demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in order to check black money, corruption, money laundering, terror financing as well as counterfeiting of currency notes.
Large number of people are queueing up at banks since then to exchange old notes and withdrawing money as ATMs are also being calibrated by the government to dispense newly-introduced Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 denomination notes.