Modi urged against forcing people to use credit, debit cards

Visakhapatnam, Dec 19 Former union secretary E.A.S. Sarma has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to force people to use credit and debit cards as every transaction takes away a portion of their hard earned money.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Sarma said knowing the risk of hacking, the Finance Minister should not force the citizens to switch over to credit and debit cards without taking the necessary precautions.

"While the cashless economy will and should evolve in step with the citizens' needs, the government should not force the people into the plastic card world in which every transaction has a cost and every transaction transfers a portion of the hard earned money of the citizen to the pockets of the private companies that profit from such operations," Sarma wrote.

This is the latest in a series of letters sent by the former bureaucrat to Modi since the demonetisation of high value currency notes last month.

Sarma, who is fighting for democratic reforms, expressed disappointment that the reforms necessary along with demonetisation were not initiated and that the central investigating agencies were not laying their hands on big fish hoarding black money.

"While you have been exhorting the people standing in queues for cash to be patient and lend you support, I feel disappointed that the central investigating agencies are yet to lay their hands on the big fish who are apparently involved in the hoarding of large volumes of black cash," Sarma said.

The retired IAS officer said though names of even some BJP legislators were mentioned in media reports on unauthorised conversion of invalidated high currency notes, no central agency seem to have probed into such cases.

"Unless those specific high profile cases are scrutinised and culprits, however high and mighty they may be, are brought to book, the ongoing cash crisis will soon snowball into a crisis of public confidence on demonetisation," he added.