Siasat.com: New Delhi: Thursday, January 23, 2020.
The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an NGO has called for scrapping Electoral Bonds which violate the citizens’ fundamental ‘Right to Know’ by withholding crucial information regarding the sources of funding.
He said, “Such opaqueness is at the cost of larger public interest and a severe blow to the very fundamentals of transparency and accountability. Therefore, the Electoral Bond Scheme, 2018 should be entirely scrapped.”
Prof Jagdeep Chhokar, Founder & Trustee of ADR, emphasized that there is no transparency in electoral bonds in an interview with ET NOW.
They have demanded that all national and regional political parties must provide all information on the funds received through Electoral Bonds under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Full details of all donors should also be made available for public scrutiny.
Key Finding: Hyderabad and Bhubaneshwar accounted for 13.81% and 5.38% respectively, of the total value of bonds sold. The remaining eleven cities including Gandhinagar, Bengaluru, Chennai etc. accounted for purchase of 1955 bonds worth Rs 713.71 cr.
Key Finding: Highest number of bonds (1789) of denomination of Rs 1 crore were purchased in Mumbai followed by 1334 bonds of the denomination of Rs 10 lakhs sold in Kolkata between March 2018 and October 2019.
Lawyer Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the ADR, an NGO alleged that the scheme is a means to channelize unaccounted black money in favour of the ruling party.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has shown an income of Rs 2,410 crore in 2018-2019 financial year of which Rs 1, 451 crore were received through Electoral Bonds. At the same time the Congress received Rs 918 crore income of which Rs 383 crore were through the Electoral Bonds, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said in its 2018-2019 financial year report.
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