[IAC#RG] RBI's Inadequate communication to the "Common Person" and experts

To:

Smt. Deepali Pant Joshi

Executive Director

Reserve Bank of India

BY EMAIL

Dear Ms. Joshi

Sub: RTI First Appeal no : RBIND/A/2017/60069

I refer to various sections on RBI's specialised website for "Common Persons" (formerly known in RBI as "Common Man")

I also refer to the section in RBI's website wrongly titled as "All You wanted to know from RBI about Withdrawal of Legal Tender Status of ₹ 500 and ₹ 1000 Notes"

Unfortunately the RBI's present disclosure is highly evasive and opaque, and does not at all address the information needs of experts, like myself, seeking to know the basis for demonetisation of SBN notes and the procedural matrix followed for authorising Demonetisation without Parliamentary sanction. To update you I am the present Convenor of the FIPS Forum, a group of experts on Fnancial Inclusion and Payment Systems, and our last FIPS 2014convention at Mumbai (on 24th Jan 2014) was sponsored by SBI, Canara Bank etc and where Mr. G. Padmanabhan, Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India was a keynote speaker.

On behalf of FIPS Forum I am conveying to you that we are shocked to read in the media that RBI's demonetisation recommendation was hastily rushed through without adequate notice on 8.Nov.2016 at a Central Board meeting held without proper agenda and where no minutes of meeting were maintained. It seems that the country head of Mr. Bill Gate's office was also privy to this recommendation. It is also common knowledge that at the earlier meeting of the Central Board held on 20.Oct.2016 at Kanpur there was considerable tension and the proceedings were leaked to the local media by a Dy Governor of RBI and found its way into the press.

On 02 January 2017 I filed an RTI request for a copy of the RBI Central Board's recommendations underlying the 8th November 2016 notification. It was refused. Yesterday I have filed a First Appeal protesting this denial, to you. My appeal (no. RBIND/A/2017/60069) starts with the following grounds

"1) Because it is false that information requested is covered under s/s 8(1)(a) of RTI Act. The CPIO has malafidely given a vague exemption, without specifics, to defend a corrupt foreign born rascal RBI Governor Shri Urjit Patel who was appointed by a thief called Narendra Modi

and ends with

9) Because despite my complaining to RBI on 6 April 2015 about the huge number of fake high denomination notes in India, no action was taken by you corrupt rogues and the prevalence of the notes increased actually from 15% to 25% so that Ajit Doval, Chota Rajan could rip off the nation"

From RBI's information disclosure, we are shocked to see that despite knowing the exceptionally high quality of the fake/counterfeit notes which flooded the economy starting from 2013 onwards, the RBI has persisted with allowing the very same corrupted Banks involved in this national scandal to inspect and certify the genuineness of SBN notes being returned. It seems the same vested interests and counterfeit currency pushers behind the new normal of appointing foreign returned PIOs as RBI Governors have taken over the nation for their corrupt design and to cover their tracks by suppressing the number of fake notes returned.

We would therefore hope and expect that the transparency regime again prevails in the Reserve Bank and the RBI fearlessly displays complete transparency on its website concerning all procedural aspects followed for its demonetisation recommendations and uploads not only its recommendations, but also the minutes of all meetings, the agenda for those meetings with all annexures and every other relevant scrap of information to assure accountability to the greatly affected people of India.

sincerely

Sarbajit Roy

New Delhi

Tel : +91-8010205897