Arun Jaitley called Chief Ministers including Manik Sarkar to join a panel to advise on cashless economy.
Manik Sarkar, Tripura Chief Minister and a vocal critic of the centre's ban on 500- and 1,000-rupee notes, has rejected Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's invitation to be part of a committee of Chief Ministers to examine the impact of demonitisation and suggest a roadmap for India's transition to a cashless economy.
Mr Sarkar, who belongs to Left party CPM, said he had told Mr Jaitley that he does not support the demonitisation and so will not join the committee. "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," Mr Sarkar told reporters.
The Tripura Chief Minister accused the central government of having announced the notes ban "without making alternative arrangements" and putting "crores of people, especially the poor, in a serious awkward condition".
Mr Jaitley's move to constitute a committee of Chief Ministers drawn from across political parties is seen as an attempt to take the steam out of a united opposition's attack on the government over the notes ban.
While BJP ally N Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party has been invited to head the committee, the Finance Minister has invited opposition chief ministers like Bihar's Nitish Kumar and Odisha's Naveen Patnaik too to be part of the panel, along with BJP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh.
The Prime Minister's Office or PMO is expected to notify the committee of Chief Ministers soon. Apart from advising the government on how to plan the transition to a cashless economy, particularly in rural India, the committee will also be mandated to review the impact of the ban on high value notes and the cash crunch that has followed and suggest ways to ease the hardship and inconvenience caused to people.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is yet to respond to Mr Jaitley's offer. Mr Kumar, who has stood out among opposition leaders for his support to the currency ban, reportedly assesses that there is public faith that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation move will eliminate black or untaxed money.