The Sentinel News: National: Sunday, September
09, 2018.
The electoral bond scheme, launched to
promote transparency in funding and donation received by political parties, has
seen donors purchasing electoral bonds worth over Rs 438 crore, of which 348
bonds are valued at Rs 1 crore in the last three months, according to an RTI
query.
Based on an initiative by the government
and the Election Commission, the State Bank of India (SBI) introduced electoral
bonds worth Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1,00,000, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore.
According to details gathered from the
SBI on electoral bonds by a Madhya Pradesh-based social worker Chandrashekhar
Gaur through the Right to Information (RTI) route, donors purchased bonds worth
Rs 438 crore in three months March, April and May, from various SBI branches.
One particular detail which emerged clear
is most of the bonds were purchased by the millionaires, to be donated to the
political parties.
Of the Rs 438 crore bonds purchased, the
political parties have monetized only 417 bonds.
The SBI data revealed that most of the
bonds worth Rs 1 crore were purchased from a Mumbai branch 206, followed by New
Delhi main branch 72, a Bengaluru branch 41, Kolkata main branch 40, a Chennai
branch 14 and a Gandhinagar branch 11 bonds.
However, when Gaur asked for more details
which parties received how many bonds and if those were monetized the bank,
citing a “third party case”, refused to divulge more information.
Former Central Information Commissioner
Shailesh Gandhi, however, said not providing any information by citing or
mentioning “third party” is against the rules and there is no such provision in
RTI.
He said the bonds were issued to tackle
the menace of black money but if any detail related to it is concealed, the
purpose of issuing bonds won`t be fulfilled.