Shiv Sena, Trinamool take battle to President

Embarrassing the BJP-led NDA government, its oldest ally and partner in the government the Shiv Sena on Wednesday joined a march led by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to the Rashtrapati Bhavan to protest against the inconveniences created by scrapping of the currency notes of Rs1,000 and Rs500. Leaders of the J&K National Conference and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also joined the march from Parliament. They later submitted a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee, urging him for an immediate withdrawal of the demonetization as it has badly hit every section of the society.

The Shiv Sena, however, did not sign the memorandum and opted to submit a separate memorandum, stressing that it is not against the demonetization, but it is concerned over the great inconvenience caused to the people. It sought redressal of the people's harassment by extending the period for exchange of the old notes, its MP Gajanan Kirtikar said.

Those in the march included former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Shiv Sena MPs Anand Rao Adsul and Kirtikar and AAP MP Bhagwant Mann.

Mamata told reporters after an audience with Pranab Mukherjee that "we had a successful meeting with the President during which we discussed the issue and he assured to look into the matter. She told him that the situation arising out of demonitisation has triggered a sort of constitutional crisis. She said the party would be moving an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. Earlier in the day, the Trinamul Congress MPs held a demonstration in the Parliament premises demanding rollback of the demonetization and raising slogans on how it has ruined lives of the people.

In its two-page memorandum, signed by seven MPs, the Shiv Sena demanding removal of the ceiling on withdrawals by people from their own bank accounts. It also sought permission to the district cooperative banks to accept the old scrapped notes up to December 30 as permitted to other commercial banks and post offices. It also pleaded for making available the necessary currency notes of Rs 10, 50, 100 and 500 immediately to give relief to the harassed people, put to truamatic conditions.

The memorandum signed by Shiv Sena MPs Chandrakant Khare, Anandrao Adsul, Gajanan Kirtikar, Arvind Sawant, Ravindra Gaikwad, Sadashiv Lokhande and Krupal Tumane protested that the district cooperative banks were stopped from carrying on their business in respect of demonetization after allowing for three days. "More than 14,000 villages do not have the branches of the nationalised banks while the farmers have their accounts in the district banks and avail every facility of the government schemes through the district banks. Not allowing them to exchange the old currency note has caused severe inconvenience to the farmers," the memorandum said.