Demonetisation: Manik Sarkar declines Jaitley offer

The Left minister, a stern critic of demonetisation, said that he does not support the move so has opted out.

"On the advice of the Prime Minister, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley called me on Monday and requested me to be in the chief ministerial committee to suggest measures to undertake cashless transactions in a bigger way. I told Jaitley I am not interested," Sarkar was quoted in the media as saying.

He has opposed the move as an impediment for poor people.

Earlier ir was reported that the Narendra Modi Government has invited Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, his Puducherry and  Tripura counterparts respectively V Narayanswamy and Manik Sarkar, among others,  to be on a panel that will suggest measures to move to a cashless economy and mitigate the  effects of cash crunch on the people following the ban on 500 and 1000 rupee notes.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu will head the committee.

The Government's move is seen as an attempt to take the sting out of the fierce attack by opposition parties against the notes ban, particularly in the light of the possibility of issue-based realignment with opposition leaders like Nitish Kumar, who supported demonetisation.

Reports said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley called up Nitish Kumar to invite him to be a member of the panel.

Narayanswamy's party Congress has been leading the opposition parties in the agitation against the way the demonetisation measure has been implemented causing hardship to the common people.

The others reportedly contacted  are Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, whose party the BJD gives issue based support to the NDA Government and has not participated in the notes ban protests of the opposition and the BJP's Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh.

PM Modi has called for  a cashless economy, saying the hardship being faced by the people will be temporary and the gains of the move will be greater. He has sought a 50-day time to let things settle down.