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Ajab Desh ki Gazab Kahani: Ten-rupee note out: One-rupee note in

It refers to matter of unpopular 10-rupee coins raised in Rajya Sabha on 24.07.2017 when attention of central government was drawn to unpopularity of 10-rupee coins. Banks are now no more getting new pack of ten-rupee notes. Whereabouts of plastic ten-rupee notes as announced by the then Union Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena in UPA regime in a written reply in Rajya Sabha on 12.03.2013 is unknown.

On the other hand despite strong criticism, Reserve Bank of India-RBI notified yet another 2017-series of new one-rupee notes signed by Shaktikant Dass, Secretary in Union Finance Ministry. One-rupee note was re-issued on 06.03.2015 after being discontinued long two decades back in the year 1994, with signature of the then Union Finance Secretary Rajiv Mahrishi. Earlier a futile exercise was made to get issued one-rupee notes signed by the then senior-most Secretary in Union Finance Ministry Ratan P Watal.

File-notings reveal that file for issue of one-rupee notes was moved by then Union Finance Secretary Arvind Mayaram after 2014 elections to Lok Sabha were announced. There were issued despite strong RBI resistance, only for bureaucratic craze to sign notes despite these being sold only at premium without coming in actual circulation. Best remedy to avoid super-wastage in printing one-rupee notes is to change Coinage Act to enable signatures of both RBI governor and a secretary-level bureaucrat in Union Finance Ministry signing currency-notes of all denominations. Bureaucrats can justify the crazy move because currency-notes are guaranteed by central government as also printed on them. Need is to make ten-rupee notes in, and one-rupee note out of printing.

SUBHASH CHANDRA AGRAWAL

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