Udupi: K.K. Shylaja, Health and Social Welfare Minister of Kerala, said on Monday that demonetisation of currency in the Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 denomination has hit the farm workers hard. She was here to inaugurate the three-day State conference of the All-India Agricultural Workers Union.
Shylaja said that the farm workers had lost even the limited and scanty work they used to get due to the Union government’s decision. The present season was important for agriculture sector. In some areas, harvesting was taking place, while in others, it was the beginning of cultivation.
But instead of being in fields, the farm workers were standing in queues before banks and ATMs for getting their petty deposits encashed or to exchange their soiled notes. The Centre had gone for demonetisation without making adequate and alternative arrangements to ensure financial liquidity, she said.
Cashless transactions required high rates of literacy, internet connectivity, wide banking network and other infrastructure facilities, which were lacking in villages.
She said that she was worried about the spread of the divisive ideologies of religious fundamentalists, who were organising workers on the basis of religion, caste, creed, etc, and thereby disrupting the unity among them. This tendency had become prominent in the country and it was having a serious impact on its social fabric.
S. Thirunavakkarasu, A. Vijayraghavan, G.N. Nagaraj, Nithyananda Swami, Chandrappa Hoskera, Venkatesh Koni, union leaders, and G.V. Sriram Reddy, K. Shankar, and Balakrishna Shetty, CPI(M) leaders, were present.
