House 'mislead' finger at govt

Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi, Dec. 2: A Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha today accused the government of misleading Parliament by saying that there was enough cash available in banks after the old 500-rupee and 1,000-rupee notes were scrapped. T. Subbarami Reddy, who had asked the government on November 29 what it was planning to do to make enough cash available at banks following the demonetisation move, complained that junior finance minister Arjun Ram Meghwal had misled the House. "The minister said there was sufficient cash available with the Reserve Bank of India and the banks. This is wrong. The minister has misled the House. The government must apologise," Reddy said. There were no protests from the treasury benches when Reddy made these observations. Deputy chairman P.J. Kurien directed the government to respond to the member's claim during the discussion on the demonetisation drive. Reddy's office said he was not happy with routine directions from the Chair and the government's silence and would raise the matter again. Reddy had also asked if the December 30 deadline for depositing the old scrapped notes would be extended, to which the government had said there was no such proposal. "Mislead" in the heading is a very light word. Actually the government just lied.