Conundrum ? Chaos ? Catastrophe ? Cataclysm ?

With 32 days down , leaving only 18 to go ( from those 50 days in which Shri Narendra Modiji had envisaged a " Changed India " , and barely any sign of that change  ) , it is but natural that the concerned Ministries / Agencies / RBI / Public Sector Banks etc , are having a  PANIC ATTACK  !

SYMPTOMS of ATTACK :

*  Frequent extensions of deadlines for acceptance of OLD notes by various agencies

*  Making many services FREE from payments ( Govt to pick up the tab ? )

*  Making banks work on week-ends / holidays

*  Making Cash Distributing Agencies / Notes printing presses, to work around the clock

*  Ordering ONE BILLION  plastic notes of Rs 10 denominations

*  Appointing a Committee of Chief Ministers to suggest ways for going CASH LESS

*  Introducing prizes / awards for DIGITAL PAYMENTS , to panchayats

*  Conducting classes for educating Government Officers in DIGITAL PAYMENTS

*  Launching exclusive TV channel / Help Line for helping citizens to go digital

*  Launching ( perpetual ? ) AMNESTY SCHEME in the guise of IT Act Amendments

*  Planning " Tax Incentives " for Buyers making DIGITAL PAYMENTS

*  Planning " Incentives " for Merchants accepting digital payments

*  Considering introduction of " Jan Dhan Yojana " like scheme for users in Rural / Semi

   Urban areas , who use Credit / Debit cards

*  Government ordering TEN LAKH Card Swipe machines for delivery in 100 days

*  NABARD ordering TWO LAKH , Point of Use machines ( for Rs 6,000 each ), for giving

   FREE , for use by 2 shops , in one lakh towns of 10,000 people or less

*  Offering tiny discounts on purchase of petrol / diesel / Life Insurance etc

*  Offering Credit / Debit cards to farmers for buying seeds / fertilizers etc

*  Imposing limits on weekly withdrawals of cash from Jan Dhan accounts

By no means , this is a comprehensive list

And be rest assured that there will be 18 new / additional announcements in the remaining 18 days !

WAS  ALL  OF  THESE  AVOIDABLE  ?

May be not ALL,  but certainly MOST what is causing hardships to common man , was avoidable

IS  A  ROLL  BACK   POSSIBLE  ?

Short answer :  NO

Long answer  :  You just cannot " Unscramble , a scrambled Egg " !

WILL  ALL OF  THIS  SUFFERING  ELIMINATE CORRUPTION ?

Yesterday , I heard of the seemingly strange case of an IT officer " offering " bribe to a businessman , instead of " demanding " it !

He told this businessman :

" I will OK your tax return without disallowing any expenses , if you give me ONE new note of Rs 2000 / - in return for ACCEPTING my 5 OLD notes of Rs 500 each , and obliging me "

May be this " innovation " was not envisaged by the authors of Demonetization !

Already , raids by ED all over the country, are finding hoards of NEW notes of Rs 2000 , which are slimmer / lighter and easier to carry ! Soon, it will be " back to square one " !

IS   IT  TOO  LATE  TO  SALVAGE  THE  SITUATION ?

No !

In our population of 1300 million , may be 1.3 million had huge amounts of unaccounted / untaxed cash in Rs 500 / 1000 notes, totally disproportionate to their known sources of income - and hidden in home cabinets or bank lockers .

For the rest, those few high denomination notes were strictly " in proportion " to their known sources of income . There was no need to harass these people , in order to locate those few / hidden / huge bundles of illegal cash

But sudden / abrupt " demonetization " caused just that harassment !

All that was required was a slow / gradual " replacement " of OLD notes with NEW notes , over an overlap period of 6 months - except that those NEW notes would be embedded with RFID chips !

Ordinary / honest / tax-paying / law abiding citizens would not have even raised an eye-brow with such a technological " intervention "

If anything , they would have welcomed it since that would have allowed them to continue buying their vegetables / groceries / bus tickets , without having to queue up in front of ATM machines !

It is still possible, not merely to " salvage " this " operation gone bad ", but permanently eliminate the twin menaces of CORRUPTION and BLACK MONEY generation, by embedding high denomination currency notes , with RFID micro-sensors !

I have sent my proposal ( Embracethe Inevitable ), to NDA Ministers / Secretaries , on 13 Nov 2016

 { myblogepage.blogspot.in/2016/11/embrace-inevitable.html   }

I am sure our Policy Makers are not so naive as to believe that human greed can be wished away by a " dictate " !

Neither Communism , nor Socialism , nor Capitalism has ever succeeded in conquering greed , anywhere in the World .

Did they really believe that those 1.3 million BLACK MONEY holders will come forward and declare their ill-gotten wealth , through persuasion ?

And , did they really believe that , even if they did so NOW ( to escape jail ) , they will not start , all over again , as soon as sufficient numbers of Rs 2,000 notes became available ?

For an answer  , do read... " Fearworks better than Persuasion " ( 10 Oct 2016 ) , 

{  http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2016/10/fear-works-better-than-persuation.html }

Implementing my suggestion at this stage , cannot erase / reverse, the hardships suffered by common men - and the damage inflicted on the economy ,

BUT

It will ensure that ,

*  The country stops sinking into what is turning out to be an ECONOMIC QUICK SAND

*  Shri Modi is able to restore the CONFIDENCE that poor Indians have placed in him

*  BJP does not lose those 5 State Elections coming up in the next 12 months

*  CORRUPTION / BLACK MONEY , are permanently eliminated !

If  Caesar  chooses to ignore this " Beware of the Ides of March " , the ominous writing is on the Wall !

Time is running out !

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13  Dec  2016

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs