Akhilesh Yadav doles out Rs 2 lakh to kin of 14 note ban victims'

Lucknow: Taking a dig at Narendra Modi’s demonetisation move, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav termed cashless economy as a “bigger dream” than “achche din” and said the note ban will be an issue in the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

“The dream of cashless economy is a bigger one than achche din. It is however for the government to see how it will be realised,” he said at a function to distribute cheques to the families of martyrs and 14 persons who allegedly lost their lives while standing in queues outside ATMs/banks after demonetisation.

Attacking the BJP government on note ban, Mr Yadav, without taking names, alleged that people have been betrayed and the economy harmed.

“Earlier (when the note ban was announced) people had faith, or rather confusion, that a big change will be brought. But soon after the very same people started saying that there could not have been a bigger loss to the economy. It is for the government to see how it will work out the losses to the GDP,” he said.

Uttar Pradesh is the first state in the country to announce compensation for the families of those who allegedly died while queuing up outside banks and ATMs for long post demonetisation. The chief  minister had earlier this month announced Rs 2 lakh compensation for the families of ‘demonetisation victims’.

“Anyone who becomes an expert in cyber crime will never be arrested,” the chief minister said after presenting cheques of Rs 2 lakh each to the families of 14 people who allegedly died while standing in bank queues.

Giving examples of major risk in online transactions, Mr Yadav said one of the accused arrested for fraudulently withdrawing money from someone’s account said that he was caught because he was a “novice”.

To a question on what will be the election issue, Yadav said “Development, road, water all will be elections issues... why would note ban not be an election issue”.