Demonetisation: Congress, Left to stage demonstrations in Odisha tomorrow

Bhubaneswar: Strongly opposing the Centre's demonetisation decision, the Congress and five Left parties will stage separate demonstrations across Odisha tomorrow.

Odisha Congress chief Prasad Harichandan said the party would organise 'Jana Akrosh' rallies across the state.

He said demonstrations and rallies would be held in all the 314 blocks and 30 districts of the state. In Bhubaneswar, a rally would be taken out from Congress Bhavan to the local Reserve Bank of India (RBI) building where the party workers would stage a dharna.

Addressing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Harichandan sought to know how much corruption and black money had been removed since November 8, the day high-value currency notes were banned

"The Rs 8 lakh crore taken in loans by industrialists is yet to be recovered. The Modi government has so far waived Rs one lakh crore of bad debt for industrialists, but why is there no such waiver for farmers?" he asked.

Five Left parties have also decided to stage demonstrations and resort to civil disobedience across Odisha tomorrow.

CPI state secretary Dibakar Naik said activists and leaders of the CPI, CPI-M, CPI-ML, SUCI and Forward Bloc would stage demonstrations in front of the RBI building here and SBI branches at all the district headquarters.

The activists of the Left parties would also court arrest, he said, adding that the Centre should ensure availability of adequate currency notes in the country as the demonetisation move had hit the common people and the poor hard.