LUCKNOW: Backing the financial funding to the political parties, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said that there was no harm in accepting donations as it was essential to run the outfit. “There is no corruption involved in it. Even the Elections Commission has set certain guidelines for political donations in the country. There is a defined limit to it,” said the Chief Minister while responding to a volley of questions from media persons at his residence here on Saturday.
Attacking the Centre over currency ban, Akhilesh said it was not only that the people who suffered due to demonetisation, note ban had hit the country’s economy equally hard. “The queues at the ATMs and banks are still there. ATMS are running without currency. Situation is still grave,” he added.
Confident of returning to power, the Chief Minister asserted that his party would make note ban one of the poll issues in the upcoming Assembly elections. Sympathising with the plight of the people and taking a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s slogan of ‘Achchhe Din’, the Chief Minister said that innocent
countrymen could not understand what ‘Achchhe Din’ were all about. He said the common man should have the right to spend his hard earned money. “The currency was not black or white, it was the transaction which is black or white and involves corruption,” he stated.
Agreeing to the fact that Jan Dhan accounts had been misused by high and mighty to convert their black money into white, Akhilesh said even his government was against such corruption. “So we have taken all precautions and the Samajwadi pension amount will be credited directly in the bank account of the
beneficiaries,” the Chief Minister stated.
Responding to a query on possible pre-poll alliance of political forces in state, Akhilesh said the final decision over any tie-up would be taken by SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, however, he added that an alliance would help the Samajwadi Party the most and would facilitate it in touching the 300-seat target in the state.
Earlier, the Chief Minister distributed Rs two lakh each to 19 families of demonetisation victims. He also gave Rs 25 lakh each to four families of freedom fighters.