New Delhi [India], Nov. 9: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Murli Manohar Joshi on Wednesday congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his move to de-monetize 500 and 1000 rupee notes in a crackdown against corruption and black money.
Joshi told ANI, "This step will have a long term impact. It may be that people will get disturbed for some time. Corruption and illegal businesses will come down. It's like a thunder strike. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to curb black money problem," "It is very timely and very friendly.
It should be supported. I congratulate the Prime Minister for taking this step with great efficiency. This is a moral step to clean up the country's economy," he added. Yesterday in a surprise televised address, Prime Minister Modi said that for humanitarian reasons, for the first 72 hours, which is till midnight on 11th November, government hospitals will continue to accept five hundred and thousand rupee notes for payment.
Pharmacies in government hospitals will also accept these notes for buying medicines with doctors' prescription.
Also till midnight on 11th November, railway ticket booking counters, ticket counters of government buses and airline ticket counters at airports will accept the old notes for purchase of tickets.
Also at Petrol, diesel and CNG gas stations authorised by public sector oil companies Consumer co-operative stores authorised by State or Central Government, Milk booths authorised by State governments, Crematoria and burial grounds.
The Reserve Bank has issued new series of notes for 500 rupees and 2,000 rupees denomination with improved features and newer sizes.
The RBI said, 2,000 rupees note, which is a first under the denomination, will be called as the 'Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series' and has a design of the low-cost mission to Mars, the Mangalayan, on the reverse.
It said, the base colour of the note will be magenta. The RBI said, the new design in the 500 rupee denomination will be in a different colour, size, theme, design and location of security features, it said.
The note, will be in a stone grey colour and the predominant theme will be Delhi's Red Fort. Both the designs of 500 rupees and 2,000 rupees, will be very friendly towards the visually-impaired by having features which make it accessible for all sections.
Source: ANI
