ProMASS: Agartala: Nov 29, 2016: Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has turned down proposal to be a member of Committee of Union Govt that will work to introduce digitized economy using cashless system. Talking to media today evening, Chief Minister said, the proposal to join in such a Committee was conveyed to him by the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Notably, Central Govt decided to form a Committee comprising Chief Ministers to look after switching over to cashless system and Manik Sarkar was the lone Chief Minister from the entire North Eastern Region invited to join the Committee.
Sarkar informed, in a telephonic conversation Arun Jaitley conveyed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had proposed Tripura Chief Minister’s name in the panel. He added, he had rejected the proposal citing his lack of knowledge about such high tech system.
Expressing his opinion on cashless economy, Sarkar said, Cashless and digitized economy is possible in most advanced economies like Sweden. However, banking services are not accessible to a sizeable percentage of population in our country and henceforth cashless economy is not a feasible option for us. He also said, experiment to introduce cashless system in America also failed. Considering prevailing monetary mess, cashless system will only add further confusion and hassles for ordinary people, he added.
