Impressed by the pro-active measures he has taken to tide over the demonetisation crisis, the Centre has asked Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu him to head a chief ministers’ panel to tackle the crisis. Finance minister Arun Jaitley is learnt to have called up Naidu and asked him to head the panel that has five CMs.According to sources, Jaitley apprised Naidu, whose Telugu Desam Party is the second largest party in the National Democratic Alliance, of the financial crisis after Narendra Modi’s announcement of demonetisation on November 8. Just an hour before receiving the call from Jaitley, Naidu took on the bankers for “playing with the lives of people”. In his daily review with bankers, RBI representatives in the state and the state finance department officials, Naidu expressed his anger that the bankers were taking the “volatile situation lightly”.“The government has become incapable because of the non-cooperation from banks,” Naidu fumed at officials. To his credit, his government has been effectively tackling the cash crisis in the state. He has come up with several alternatives to encourage online and mobile transactions besides distributing small change at vegetable markets as an immediate relief to the people. He has been insisting that old notes should be allowed in hospitals on production of Aadhar cards.As a long-term measure, the Naidu government is roping in 90 lakh members from co-operative sector in villages and towns to undertake statewide campaigns on online transactions. The government is also designing a mechanism that makes ordinary phones do money transactions. The government will distribute such phones to the poor.