Investigative agencies have unearthed nearly Rs 200 crore in illicit cash, lakhs of litres of alcohol, and even drugs in Punjab.
Investigative agencies have unearthed nearly Rs 200 crore from various states that went to elections in early February, raising questions about the effectiveness of demonetization, a move the government touted would suck out all the illicit cash from the economy.
Over Rs 100 crore was seized in Uttar Pradesh, over Rs 50 crore in Punjab apart from liquor and drugs in the state, according to a report by The Times of India.
Rs 109.78 crore was seized in UP as of February 18, the report said. UP still has four phases of polling to go. The amount was three times from what was reported in the 2012 assembly elections.
In Punjab, likewise, Rs 58.02 crore in cash was seized, up from the Rs 11.51 crore in 2012, 12.43 lakh litres of liquor worth Rs 13.36 crore (up from Rs 2.59 crore) and 2,598 kg of drugs worth Rs 18.26 crore were caught in the run up to the February 4 poll, TOI said.
| States |
Cash |
Liquor |
| Uttar Pradesh |
Rs 109.78 crore (Till Feb 18) |
|
| |
|
|
| Punjab |
Rs 58.02 crore |
12.32 lakh litres worth Rs 13.36 crore |
| |
|
2,598 kg of drugs worth Rs 18.26 crore |
| |
|
|
| Uttarakhand |
Rs 3.38 crore |
1.01 lakh litres of alcohol worth Rs 3.10 crore |
| |
|
|
| Goa |
Rs 2.24 crore |
Alcohol worth Rs 1.07 crore |
In Uttarakhand, Rs 3.38 crore was seized in cash, up nearly two-fold from the Rs 1.30 crore caught in 2012 assembly elections. This year, 1.01 lakh litres of alcohol worth Rs 3.10 crore was found.
In Goa, Rs 2.24 crore in cash was found, a 273% rise from 2012. Liquor worth Rs 1.07 crore was seized.
Demonetization was effectively supposed to remove excess cash from the system by coercing the public - including the political candidates - to deposit surplus cash into their bank accounts and pay a penalty on the unaccounted income. This would raise the tax base and collection for the government and remove the excess cash from the system, the government had said. Cash withdrawal limits were put into place which strictly limited the cash-in-hand for the general public at least, which may hamper their capabilities to come out and vote. However, since the first limits on cash withdrawal, the central bank has eased them to an extent.
In the aforementioned report, a senior Election Commission (EC) official was quoted as saying, "The massive and unprecedented cash seizures from the poll-bound states prove that demonetization ha shad no effect on the use of money power in elections. Even though EC, concerned that the RBI limit on cash withdrawals from banks and ATMs would handicap the candidates in spending up to the prescribed poll expenditure limit, pushed the RBI to relax these restrictions, the high cash seizures show that the withdrawal caps were hardly a deterrent for candidates or political parties."
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