A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi refused to meet an all-party delegation from Kerala to discuss the co-operative sector crisis that hit the state following the Centre’s demonetisation move, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) has decided to intensify their protest.
The CPI (M) on Thursday called for a state-wide hartal to be organized on 28 November. The decision was taken at the party state secretariat meeting, with LDF allies also expressing their solidarity to the move.
The hartal has been called to protest against the Centre for refusing to address the concerns of the state government about the RBI ban on District Co-operative Banks (DCB) from accepting or exchanging devalued Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes.
All essential services including banks will reportedly be exempted from the dawn-to-dusk hartal.
State Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had led a day-long protest outside the RBI regional office in Thiruvananthapuram last week in this regard.
A special session of the state legislative assembly had met on Tuesday to pass a resolution urging the Centre to withdraw restrictions imposed on co-operative banks.
At the national level, all the political parties in the Opposition came together on Wednesday to declare a Bharat Bandh on 28 November to protest against the Centre’s demonetisation move.