Govt. To Send Babus On Field Visits To Assess Demonetisation Drive 

New Delhi: A total of 32 teams comprising nearly 70 senior officers--of the level of Additional Secretary and Joint Secretary-- and those working as Director or Deputy Secretary have been formed by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) and deputed to undertake field visits in various states for making on-the-spot assessment of the demonetisation drive.

Coming under fire from a united opposition in Parliament and across national and regional media that is up in arms against the government for implementing the demonetisation drive without proper planning, the government has decided to send their own teams to assess the ground realities and provide feedback.

The officers have been drawn from various central government departments. Teams of three officers each would visit Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, DoPT said.

Two-member teams would visit Telangana, Kerala, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Goa and Assam. Whereas, teams of one official each would visit Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur, Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep, Puducherry and Sikkim. Department of Economic Affairs will decide the dates/ duration of the field visits as well as the terms of the reference for the same, the it said.

The Centre had on November 8 demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in order to check black money, corruption, money laundering, terror financing as well as counterfeiting of currency notes.

Large number of people have been queueing up at banks since then to exchange old notes and withdrawing money as ATMs are also being calibrated by the government to dispense newly-introduced Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 denomination notes. This has caused a lot of inconvenience to the people across the nation, both in cities and more so in the villages where cash is the only mode of operation.

Meanwhile with a united opposition looking to corner the government in Rajya Sabha on demonetisation issue, BJP on Friday issued a whip to its members, asking them to be present in the House for three days starting Monday.

The House is expected to see pandemonium between the treasury and opposition benches on the issue of demonetisation.