PM asks ministers to submit travel details of note ban campaign by today

NEWDELHI: Weeks after asking his MPs and ministers to travel across India to campaign for demonetisation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has now sought their travel details.

“All the ministers have been asked to submit details of their outstation tour programmes in the last three months,” said a source.

“If not on tour, they should mention if they were in Delhi and attended office,” he added.

The details are expected to reveal who went where and if they actually promoted demonetisation and the government’s push for cashless society, said sources.

Modi himself has been at the forefront of the campaign amid Opposition’s onslaught against demonetisation and mixed reactions from economists and other experts.

During the winter session of Parliament, which was lost in din over demonetisation, Modi had urged his MPs and ministers to reach out to different sections of society to strike the right note about the cash ban exercise — the biggest such exercise in any country.

The PM, in a recent cabinet meeting, personally gave the direction to his colleagues, sources added.

The ministers have been asked to submit their tour details by Monday.

It is not yet known what action will be taken against those who failed to undertake tours to promote the government’s biggest monetary initiative.

Minister for rural development Narendra Singh Tomar has been directed to coordinate with the ministries for the task, the sources added.

“The idea is to find if the ministers visited places beyond their respective constituencies to promote the initiatives of the government, particularly demonetisation. The exercise is also aimed at knowing if they were balancing office work and field duties,” a source said.