Congress to gherao RBI offices to protest demonetisation

"Modi government's and RBI's decision today to not lift the weekly withdrawal restrictions of Rs 24,000 is a treachery with people of India," said Surjewala.

New Delhi, Jan 17: The Congress will gherao the Reserve Bank of India office in Delhi and 25 other RBI offices across the country from Wednesday as part of its protest against demonetisation and "destruction of RBI's autonomy".

"Need of the hour is to ensure complete restoration of money supply, a fixation of responsibility for the mess of demonetisation and lifting of restrictions on people to withdraw their own hard earned money from their own bank accounts," said Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala. The gherao will go on from January 18 to 23 in different cities across the country.

Anand Sharma will lead the gherao in New Delhi, Randeep Singh Surjewala in Mumbai, N. Sanjeeva Reddy in Kolkata, Prithviraj Chavan in Bengaluru (January 19), Oscar Fernandes in Chennai (January 20), Rajeev Shukla in Chandigarh, Kapil Sibal in Dehradun, K.C. Venugopal in Panaji, Shakeel Ahmad in Lucknow, Gurudas Kamat in Jaipur, Sushil Kumar Shinde in Ahmedabad and Salman Khurshid in Patna.

"Modi government's and RBI's decision today to not lift the weekly withdrawal restrictions of Rs 24,000 is a treachery with people of India," said Surjewala. "Failure to restore money supply has paralyzed India's economy leading to massive loss of jobs and closure of businesses on a everyday basis," he added.

He also said: "RBI, instead of playing the role of an independent monetary regulator and a key denominator of economic growth, has become a mere post office following the diktats of Modi government like a captive puppet. "Destruction of autonomy and integrity of institutions, essential to our democratic fabric, has become a sine qua non for PM Modi's unitary style of functioning," he added.

IANS