Currency ban: Ready to fight against Centre with CPI-M, says Mamata Banerjee

During a press conference here in state's main administrative building at Nabanna, Mamata Banerjee said, "This decision is not a surgical strike against black money holders, it's a surgical anarchy against general people and also an unofficial finance emergency."

"When general people of this country are suffering a lot due to currency ban, Prime Minister is visiting Japan. This anti-people Central government has no moral rights to continue in power," Banerjee added.

Bengal Chief Minister asked all opposition parties to fight against the Modi-government step of demonetization.

"Though I have ethical and ideological differences with CPI-M and few other parties, but I don't have any problem to move against it with CPI-M, Congress and other opponent parties, if they want," she said.

Earlier in the afternoon, Banerjee visited few banks and its ATMs in Kolkata and talked to general people, standing in the queue to exchange or deposit Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes.

"I personally visited few banks and ATMs today in my city and witnessed how the general people are suffering in the queue. A large number of ATMs were either closed or out of cash," Mamata Banerjee alleged.

"Due to this decision, only 1% black money holders in the country managed to escape and 99% general people are being harassed," she further said.

Banerjee said that her party had given a notice to the Rajya Sabha for a discussion on this issue on Nov 16, the opening day of Parliament's winter session.

"Our Parliamentary team will sought against the 'midnight decision' of the Modi-government in the coming winter session," Mamata Banerjee noted.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal called the entire move as one of the biggest 'scam' of recent times.

"Not just that. It is one of the biggest scams of recent times," Kejriwal tweeted.

The Government has scrapped the Rs. 1000 and Rs. 500 notes with effect from Tuesday midnight to fight black money. 

In unprecedented scenes, millions of people since Thursday morning thronged in front of banks across the country to deposit the now-invalid Rs. 500 and rs. 1000 notes.

The Government has asked the people to deposit their Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes in banks within a specific time frame and get smaller denominations in exchange.

It has also  announced that deposits above Rs. 2.5 lakh will be taxed and could draw a 200 per cent penalty if found disproportionately higher than the account owner's income.

The banks have been asked to keep the details of PAN card of people depositing such large amounts over the 50-day period till December 30

Banks will remain open this weekend and many banks have announced longer working hours.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)