Patnaik searching escape route to protect black money : BJP

BJP today termed demands of relaxation of banking norms by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in the wake of demonetisation as an attempt to find escape route for protection of the black money.
"By making certain demands like allowing cooperative banks to exchange old notes, exemption of PAN number norms for deposit above Rs 50,000 in schedule area and free bank account operation for women self help group by the chief minister, are nothing but to find out an escape route for protecting black money," BJP state general secretary Pruthiwraj Harichandan said in a statement.
The statement came barely hours after Patnaik put forth his demands before Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi today.

Though Patnaik had welcomed demonetisation and called it "bold step," Harichandan said there was no difference between Patnaik and chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee and Aravind Kejriwal and the Tamil Nadu government.
Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had yesterday criticised Patnaik for requesting the prime minister to exempt PAN card provision for people in scheduled areas for bank deposits beyond Rs 50,000.
"The state government has been maintaining that paddy procurement is now being done through bank transactions so what is the need for exemption?" he asked.
Pradhan sought to know whether BJD wanted to convert black money to white through this channel for which PAN exemption was requested for.