Bareilly:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes would no longer be legal tender from November 9 might have come as a surprise and shock to most citizens, but not for Mohd Khalid Jilani, a Bareilly-based RTI activist, who had anticipated it in October this year.
On October 17, Jilani filed an RTI query with the Union ministry of finance asking whether there was a proposal pending with the government about scrapping notes in the two denominations after the income declaration scheme (IDS) had ended. Jilani had also asked for names and address of those people and organisations who had suggested scrapping of the two notes. The reply to his query is still awaited.
Jilani had two more questions for the ministry. In his RTI request, he had asked what were the reasons responsible for domestic black money which had come to light during the review fo the IDS. The final question was about the amount of money the finance ministry had spent on publicity of IDS.
Since the RTI Act states that queries must be replied to within 30 days, Jilani is awaiting the completion of the deadline in a week.
“By not replying to the query, the finance ministry maintained secrecy about its decision to scrap both currency notes,” Jilani told TOI.
Asked what prompted him to file the query, Jilani said, “The Modi government was criticised by everyone for not fulfilling the promise to clamp down on black money made by him before elections. After the last date for IDS ended on September 30 this year, I thought that the Centre could now take some strict action against black money. Civil society has been demanding a ban on circulation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes for a long time. I myself had filed a memorandum in this regard with the finance ministry nearly three years ago.” He added that the Centre’s decision to denotify the two currency notes was delayed because of the festive season, which began when the IDS deadline expired.
Welcoming the move by the Centre, Jilani said, “It will impact black money, which is being used for funding terrorism and purchasing votes for politicians. However, the government should adopt a transparent system for exchanging old with new currency and conduct inquiry against persons found to be hoarding unaccounted money. Besides, public should support the government to make the country corruption-free instead of complaining about the inconvenience faced by them for some time.”
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Bareilly News /by Priyangi Agarwal / TNN / November 09th, 2016