Opposition seeks voting rule for demonetisation

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the government was willing to debate the issue under Rule 193, which does not entail voting, as it did not want two voices to emerge from Parliament, drawing incessant protests from the opposition. As opposition parties refused to budge, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned proceedings for the day after a 25-minute adjournment earlier. The House was adjourned for the on Wednesday as a mark of respect for a sitting member who had passed away in August. As soon as the House met, Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandhyopadhyay said his party wanted to move an adjournment motion. Leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said his party too wanted to move a similar motion to discuss the “hardship being faced by the people and the economic disruption and the failure of the government to redress the plight of the people.” He said another issue his party wanted to flag was the “leakage” of the information on demonetisation before it came into force. The Question Hour between 11 am and noon went on amid continued vociferous protests and sloganeering by opposition members, including those from Congress, TMC, the Left, SP and RJD. Members of some other parties, including AIADMK, were also seen in the aisle. “We all want a discussion under the Rule 56 so that we can know what is the stand of all parties when they vote. Then everyone will participate,” Kharge said.

Two employees of an outsourcing company were absconding along with cash worth over Rs 1.22 crore of old currencies in the district since November 9.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Rajiv Mehrotra, on Thursday said that the Lucknow based outsourcing company CMS Infosis Ltd was responsible for carrying currencies for ICICI, Axis, Corporation, Allahabad, and Union Banks and ATMs in the districts. But after November 8 night demonetisation move by the Centre, the agency found that the old currencies worth over Rs 1.22 crore were missing along with two employees. Mehrotra said the outsourcing company has filed a police complaint against its employee Aditya Vijay and Keshav Prasad here on Wednesday charging them that they have not deposited the amount on November 9. The entire amount was of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currencies. Of the total amount, 46.15 lakhs were of ICICI bank, Rs 26.42 lakh of Axis Bank, Rs 9.21 lakh of Allahabad Bank, Rs 20.68 lakhs of Corporation Bank and Rs 20.01 lakh of Union Bank. The SP said that police was investigating the case and manhunt has been launched to nab the culprits.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear on Friday a fresh plea of Centre seeking a stay on the proceedings before various high courts and other courts except the apex court against its November 8 decision to demonetise high denomination currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.

A bench comprising justices A R Dave and A M Khanwilkar agreed to the contention of Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Centre, that proceedings in various courts except the apex court on the issue will create a lot of confusion. The bench said the matter will be heard by another bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur which is hearing a batch of PILs against the Centre’s demonetisation move. The apex court, on November 15, had refused to stay the government’s demonetisation notification but asked it to spell out the steps taken to minimise public inconvenience. Out of the four PILs in the apex Court on demonetisation issue, two were filed by Delhi-based lawyers Vivek Narayan Sharma and Sangam Lal Pandey, while two others were filed by individuals, S Muthukumar and Adil Alvi. The petitioners had alleged that the sudden decision has created chaos and harassment to public at large and the notification of the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance be either quashed or deferred for some time.

Cash worth nearly Rs 73 lakh in now defunct denominations of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 was seized from two cars in the district, police said on Thursday. During a “nakabandi” on the Nashik-Aurangabad road here on Wednesday evening, the police found Rs 32,99,500 in one car proceeding from Nashik to Kopargaon, Niphad police station incharge Ranjit Dere said. Another car going from Gujarat to Vaijapur in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad district was also intercepted in which Rs 40 lakh in cash was found, he said. The police later informed the I-T department officials and also called a bank manager to come along with a counting machine to ascertain the exact value of the cash.