Govt urges RBI to ensure availability of valid notes

The state government has urged the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) authorities to take the necessary steps to ensure availability of valid notes to give salary advance to its employees.

A high-level meeting was held in Nabanna on Wednesday in this regard. The meeting was headed by the state’s chief secretary Basudeb Banerjee. Regional Director in Kolkata of RBI Rekha Warriar and representatives of the State Level Bankers Committee were present in the meeting. 

Additional chief secretaries and principal secretaries of departments including Panchayat and Rural Development, Agriculture, Agriculture marketing, Co-operation and Labour also attended the meeting. Two senior officials from the Centre including agriculture secretary Raghvendra Singh were present in the meeting.

During the meeting top officials of the state government have put forward the crisis the people are facing due to shortage of money in the market. They also mentioned how the work of their department had been hampered due to demonetisation of notes. It is learnt that the Chief Secretary urged the RBI authorities to provide the state government with valid notes following all the necessary formalities so that the advance salary can be given to the employees.

The state government had announced on Monday that its employees would be allowed to draw a part of their salary in advance in cash as they were facing trouble due to the ongoing cash crunch after the Centre hastily decided to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

The teaching and non-teaching staff in educational institution, employees in panchayat, municipalities, municipal corporations, PSUs and boards in the posts equivalent to group-C and group D would be getting Rs 5,000 from their salary for the month of December. While officials in the same rank but contractual will be getting Rs 2000 as advance against their remuneration provided their average monthly payment is more than Rs 2000.

In a bid to give the salary advance before November 30, the state government needs valid notes worth Rs 215 crores.

Sources said the RBI authorities have assured that they would try their level best to ensure supply the required supply of money. But they failed to give any commitment in this regard and said that they will forward the message of the state government to the RBI headquarters.

Till date Rs 500 notes worth Rs 10 crore were sent to the state. The supply has to be increased, urged the state government adding that from now onwards, 70 per cent of the new notes are to be sent to the rural part and the rest in the urban areas. Restriction imposed on co-operative banks to exchange Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes also cropped up in the meeting as it is leaving the farmers in a poor situation.