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नोट से भी ज्यादा तेजी से बदल रहे हैं बैंकों के नियम

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नई दिल्ली। देश के प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी ने 8 नवंबर की रात को 500 और 1000 के नोट बंद करने का अचानक ऐलान कर दिया था। जिसके बाद देश में भूचाल आया हुआ है। लोग सुबह से रात तक बैंकों के सामने लाईन में लगकर पैसे निकालने की कोशिश कर रहे हैं और ज्यादातर लोगों को पैसे नहीं मिल पा रहे हैं। पैसे न होने की वजह से कहीं लोग भूखों मर रहे हैं तो कहीं बैंकों के सामने ही लोगों की मौत हो रही है।

Note ban

ताज्जुब की बात है कि 10 दिन होने के बाद भी सरकार पैसे निकालने और जमा करने की राशि नहीं निर्धारित कर पा रही है। आज कुछ और नियम होते हैं तो कल कुछ और। नोटबंदी के बाद सरकार ने 4000 पुराने नोट बदलने की राशि निर्धारित की थी लेकिन बाद में इसे बढ़ाकर 4500 कर दिया गया वहीं अब सरकार ने एक और निर्दयतापूर्वक फैसला लेते हुए इस राशि को घटाकर 2000 कर दिया। 
 
इसके अलावा सरकार ने हफ्ते में 20,000 रुपए तक पैसे निकासी की सीमा निर्धारित की थी जिसे बढ़ाकर 24,000 किया गया लेकिन फिर से सरकार ने इस राशि को घटाकर 20,000 कर दिया। वहीं एटीएम से सरकार ने पहले 2000 रुपए पैसे निकालने की बात कही थी बाद में इस राशि को बढ़ाकर 2500 कर दिया गया था जिसे अब फिर से 2000 ही निर्धारित कर दिया। सरकार निर्धारित ही नहीं कर पा रही है उसे क्या करना है?

सरकार ने नोटबंदी के फैसले कर दिए लेकिन न तो एटीएम मशीनें सही हैं न ही बैंकों में काम सही तरीके से हो रहा है। जनता भूख से तड़प रही है और रोज सुबह-सुबह आर्थिक सचिव आते हैं एक प्रेस कॉंफ्रेंस करते हैं और नोट बदलने और निकालने के नए नियम बता जाते हैं। सरकार को शायद यह नहीं पता कि जनता तो पहले से इतनी परेशान है और इस तरह रोज रोज नियमों में बदलाव करने से जनता और कंफ्यूज हो रही है। 

आपको बता दें कि नोटबंदी के फैसले के बाद देशभर में लगभग 40 लोगों की मौतें हो चुकी हैं। कहीं लोग बैंकों की लाईन में मर गए तो कहीं अस्पताल में नोट न लेने से मर गए।

Courtesy: National Dastak

 

बीजेपी के सहकारी मंत्री की गाड़ी से 92 लाख की अवैध नकदी बरामद

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पिछले एक हफ्ते में नोटबंदी की घोषणा के बाद से अवैध रूप से जमा नकदी पकड़े जाने के कई मामले सामने आए है। इसी कड़ी में महाराष्ट्र के शोलापुर से 92 लाख की नकदी एक प्राइवेट गाड़ी से बरामद की गई है। ये नकदी और गाड़ी वहीं के लोक मंगल समूह की बताई गई हैं। लोक मंगल समूह के संचालक राज्य के वरिष्ठ बीजेपी नेता और सहकारी मंत्री सुभाष देशमुख है।

Black Money
Representation Image

उस्मानाबाद के कलेक्टर प्रशांत नरनवारे ने बताया कि गुरूवार को नगर परिषद चुनावों के मद्देनज़र फ्लाइंग स्काउड द्वारा रूटिन जांच-पड़ताल की जा रही थी। उसी में एक वाहन की चैकिंग में के दौरान 92 लाख की नकदी सामने आई। ये गाड़ी लोकमंगल समूह की है। नकदी के साथ गाड़ी में मौजूद व्यक्ति लोकमंगल समूह का ही कर्मचारी था।

 

टाइम्स आॅफ इंडिया की खबर के अनुसार, इस बाबत सहकारी मंत्री सुभाष देशमुख ने बताया कि ये पैसा चीनी मिल श्रमिकों के भुगतान हेतु था। ये मिल लोक मंगल समूह से ही जुड़ी हुई है।

जबकि इस पर कलेक्टर प्रशांत नरनवारे ने कहा कि हमनें वाहन और नकदी को उस्मानाबाद जिले की उमरगा तहसील में ही जब्त कर लिया था और नकदी को स्थानीय सरकारी कोष में जमा करा दिया गया है। इसके अलावा हमनें लोक मंगल समूह से इस पर स्पष्टीकरण मांगा है व आयकर विभाग व पुलिस को इस बारें में सुचित कर दिया गया है।

यदी लोक मंगल समूह नकदी के बारें मेें सही-सही ब्यौरा उपलब्ध कराता है तो ये वापस कर दिया जाएगा वर्ना कानूनी प्रावधानों के अनुसार इस पर कार्रवाई होगी।

Courtesy: Janta Ka Reporter
 

Demonetisation effect: Maharashtra stamp duty collection drops 37 per cent

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Stamp duty collection in Maharashtra has dropped by 37 per cent after the Centre demonetised high-value notes, a senior official said on Friday.

Demonetisation effect
File Photo

The Union government’s decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes was announced 10 days back and stamp duty collection is already down by 37 per cent across the state, Inspector General of Registration (IGR) and Controller of Stamps N Ramaswamy told PTI.

 

The state government’s average daily earning through property registration charges and stamp duty has come down to Rs 42 crore from Rs 65 crore earlier, he said.

“Though most of the transactions such as calculation of ready reckoner, its stamp duty and payment are done digitally as well as through demand drafts, still the collection has gone down.

“The IGR offices across the state generally handle 7,300 documents daily, which has now plunged to 4,000 documents,” he said.

The IGR office registers all types of property deals, including sale and purchase of land, properties, rent and lease agreements. It is the second largest revenue generating department of the state government, after excise.

The IGR office contributed Rs 21,767 crore to the state coffers in 2015-16 financial year.

“There is one fee called document handling fee, where Rs 20 per page is charged from the people who are buying it.

People generally pay the amount in cash at the IGR office. In post demonetisation period, I have issued a circular that the amount can be paid through demand draft. Still, the response is low,” said the IAS officer.

Industry sources said a sizeable section of the total cost of a property is paid in cash and it never reflects on papers.

Such deals are badly hit after the government’s demonetisation move.

(With inputs from PTI)

Courtesy: Janta ka Reporter
 

7 Deadly Days of Demonetisation

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The Common man continues to suffer; will Modi Government hear their pleas?

As the 8th day of demonetisation approaches, death toll rises to 47 while millions go hungry. Serious questions were raised in the Parliament Winter Session, on both, its execution as well as the consequences. The impact of the so-called demonetisation measure of the BJP government is proving to be much grimmer than anticipated. The economy is slowly grinding to a halt, with the poor and daily wage earners being particularly badly hit.

Prabhat Patnaik and a host of others have talked about the futility of these measures, which seeks to focus on the flow of black money, while black money is actually unaccounted or black wealth. This black wealth is stashed in dollar accounts abroad, or in land, gold, jewellery, etc. Demonetisation has very little impact on this black wealth. Govind Acharya, the former RSS ideologue has estimated that even by most optimistic account, demonetisation of the existing Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes will interdict only 3% of this black wealth.The Modi government’s move, while equally ineffective in countering “black money”, has the added flaw of impinging severely on common people. 

Courtesy: NewsClick

Where are the jobs, Mr. Modi?

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Narendra Modi came in to power with bombastic promises of employment and development. But, today the government’s own data shows that unemployment, particularly among youth, is increasing alarmingly under Mr. Modi’s tenure. According Labour Bureau, unemployment rate among the graduate youth (18 to 29 years) increased from 28%, which already high, to 35% between 2014 and 2015. 

Employment-rate3.gif

Official unemployment rate does not fully capture the levels of unemployment, as it does not consider those who have given up looking for work, to be unemployed. The consequence is that the actual unemployment among graduate would be even higher than 35%.

Courtesy: Newsclick
 

Nobody has any cash in this village in Maharashtra

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The government’s demonestisation has devastated farmers, landless labourers, pensioners, petty traders and many others across Maharashtra.

In Chikalthana village, on the edge of and merging with Aurangabad town in Maharashtra, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of a cashless economy seems to have been realised. Nobody has any cash. Not the banks, nor the ATMs and certainly not the people queuing up in and around them in despair. Even the policemen sitting in the vans outside bank branches haven’t any.

But cheer up. They’ll soon have ink marks on their fingers.

In the State Bank of Hyderabad at Shahganj, within the walled city of Aurangabad, you can see equally desperate bank staff struggling to help their impoverished clients. There and in other branches of every single bank in the town, soiled notes worth crores of rupees in denominations of Rs 50 and Rs.100 – meant to be sent to the Reserve Bank of India for final destruction – are being reintroduced into circulation. The RBI knows of this but condones it through silence.

At Shaganj in the walled city of Aurangabad, the queues are long and tempers short.
At Shaganj in the walled city of Aurangabad, the queues are long and tempers short.

Not enough to go around

“What option do we have?” ask people working in these banks. “The public really needs small notes now. All their work and transactions have come to a halt.” As we speak to the staff inside, Javeed Hayat Khan, a small vendor, comes up to us from a queue that runs close to a kilometre outside the bank, on a Sunday. He hands us an invitation to his daughter Rasheda Khatoon’s wedding.

“All I have in my account is Rs 27,000,” he says. “All I ask for is Rs 10,000 of that for my daughter’s wedding coming up in three weeks. And I’m not allowed to withdraw it.” [This article was written before the announcement on November 17]
The bank held back since he had withdrawn Rs 10,000 the previous day, though he is entitled to take out the same sum today – because they feel there isn’t enough cash to go around the serpentine queues. And they hope to give some small amount to each person in those lines. A couple of them are now trying to help Khan. They point out that such money as he has in his account came from breaking a fixed deposit he had set up for his daughter’s marriage.

Javeed Hayat Khan desperately needs to withdraw cash for his daughter’s wedding just three weeks away
Javeed Hayat Khan desperately needs to withdraw cash for his daughter’s wedding just three weeks away

As several writers, analysts and official reports have already pointed out, the bulk of India’s “black” economy is held in bullion, benami land deals,and foreign currency. Not in stacks of notes in grandma’s old oak chest. The chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes said so in a 2012 report on Measures to tackle black money in India and abroad. The report also said (page 14, Part II, 9.1) demonetisation “miserably failed” on two past occasions in 1946 and 1978. Yet, this action is what the Bharatiya Janata Party government has repeated.

The “Modi masterstroke”, a term contrived by assorted anchors and other clowns on television to hail an unbelievably stupid action, is spreading agony and misery in its wake across the countryside. If there’s been any stroke, it’s the one the heart of the rural economy has suffered.

The recovery time from the stroke was first dismissed by the finance minister and his party colleagues as two-three days of discomfort. Dr Jaitley then modified that to two-three weeks. Soon after, his senior surgeon, Narendra Modi, said he needed 50 days to restore the patient to health. So we’re already into 2017 with this course of treatment. Meanwhile, we do not know how many people across the country have died waiting in queues, but their number mounts daily.
 

Cash means everything

“In Lasalgaon in Nashik district, farmers driven by the cash crunch closed down the onion markets,” says Nishikant Bhalerao, editor of the weekly Adhunik Kisan. “In Vidarbha and Marathwada, cotton prices have plummeted by 40% per quintal.” Barring a few transactions, sales have come to a halt. “No one has any cash. Commission agents,producers and buyers alike are in serious trouble,” says Jaideep Hardikar, a reporter with The Telegraph in Nagpur.

“Depositing cheques in the rural branches was always a tedious process and right now, withdrawal is a nightmare.”

So, very few farmers will accept cheques. How can their households function while waiting for those to be realised? Many others simply do not have active bank accounts.

One important public sector bank in this state has a total of 975 ATMs across the country. Of these, 549 were serving up no denomination other than despair. Most of those non-functioning ATMs are in rural areas. A particularly cynical rationalisation of the impact is the claim that “rural areas function on credit. Cash means nothing.” Really? It means everything.

Transactions at the lowest levels are overwhelmingly in cash. Bank employees in small rural branches foresee a law and order crisis if small denomination cash doesn’t arrive in a week. Others say the crisis is already here and will not abate even if some cash arrives in that time.

At another queue in Aurangabad, Pervez Paithan, a construction supervisor, fears his labourers will soon turn violent. “They need to be paid for work already done,”he says. “But I cannot lay my hands on cash.” In Chikalthana village, Rais Akhtar Khan says she and other young mothers like her are finding it increasingly difficult to feed their children. When they do, “it is after great delays because we are spending so much of our day in these queues. The children go hungry for hours after their normal eating time.”

Most women in the queues say they have two-four days of provisions left. They’re terrified to think the cash flow problem might not be resolved in that time. Alas, it will not be.

Farmers,landless labourers, domestic servants, pensioners, petty traders, all these and many other groups have taken a terrible hit. Several including those employing workers will go into debt, borrowing money to pay off wages. With some others, it’s to buy food.

“Our queues are growing, not diminishing, with each passing day,” says a staffer at the Station Road branch of State Bank of Hyderabad in Aurangabad. Here, a few employees are trying to cope with huge and increasingly angry queues of people. One staffer points out a flaw in the software sent out for the authentication of ID and other details.

People are allowed to exchange a maximum of eight notes of Rs 500 or four of Rs 1,000 for two of Rs 2,000 in value. This is a one-time transaction. “Yes, it does trip you up if you try duplicating your act the next day. But you can get around that. Just use a different ID. If today you use your Aadhaar card,tomorrow bring your passport and the day after that, your PAN card, you can repeat the transaction without detection.”

Frustrated members of the public throng the inside of the Shahganj branch of the State Bank of Hyderabad. Outside, the queue is nearly a kilometre long

Frustrated members of the public throng the inside of the Shahganj branch of the State Bank of Hyderabad. Outside, the queue is nearly a kilometre long

Now, very few people have actually done this. Most are unaware of it. But the government’s response borders on the insane. They’ve decided to start marking the fingers of the people in the queues (post-exchange) with indelible ink as they do in voting. On a right-hand finger so there is no confusion when people vote in by-elections coming up in some states.

“Never mind what orders or instructions government might issue,” says R Patil, a small contractor, in the Station Road queue. “The fact is most of the hospitals and pharmacies do not entertain the Rs 500 or Rs 1,000 notes.” Standing beside him is Syed Modak, a carpenter who had run from clinic to clinic to save a seriously ill relative. “We were turned down everywhere,” he says. “Either they don’t accept the couple of Rs 2,000 notes or say they have no change to give us.”

Meanwhile, all eyes are on Nashik, from where the newly-printed currency will go out – across India. No one’s got it yet in the rural regions, but all pin their hopes on its happening. Watch this space.

This piece originally appeared in the People’s Archive of Rural India on November 16, 2016.