Agartala, Nov 30 (TIWN / IANS): Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar on Tuesday said he had declined to join a panel proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to suggest cashless transactions following demonetisation.

"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 to be in the committee," Sarkar told reporters on Tuesday night.

He quoted Jaitley as saying that some Chief Ministers of different political parties would be in the proposed panel, which would give ideas about digitization of cashless transactions in the country.

"Without making alternative arrangements, sudden demonetisation of high-value currency has put crores of people, specially the poor, in a serious awkward condition," the CPI-M leader said. 

Sarkar urged the Prime Minister to allow the use of demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes till ATMs were recalibrated and new and smaller denomination notes became easily available across the country.