Congress rattled at prospect of govt going after illegal money: Naidu

Accusing Congress of trying to "tar" the government's image by calling demonetisation a scam, Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu today said the note ban move was an "anti-scam vaccine" but the opposition party is rattled at the prospect of the government going after illegal money.

The I&B minister said the inconvenience that has been caused because of shortage of currency notes would decline further in January and the situation would rapidly improve thereafter.

Naidu said that the government was trying to usher in cleanliness in all aspects of the society and this massive exercise is a form of 'yagna' and there could be inconvenience.

"Some asuras are always trying disturb the peace during the yagna. But this Prime Minister is determined, he wants to make this transformation of India a reality," he told reporters here.

Naidu said that while critics had claimed that Narendra Modi had mounted a tiger, he also knows how to dismount a tiger as he had done so many times in the past.

He said that the Prime Minister has provided a "scandal-free government" in the last two-and-a-half years as per the mandate of 2014 and demonetisation was a part of a grand strategy to usher in transparency.

Demonetisation was an "anti-scam vaccine introduced by the Prime Minister to prevent scams from taking place, to curb corruption and black money generation", he said.

He claimed that Congress and its friends are making baseless allegations and are "rattled by the prospect of the government going after those who made illegal deposits in banks and bought benami properties".

Claiming that politics of "spit and run" will not work, Naidu said that the government will not be distracted by "diversionary tactics."

"It will only further strengthen the resolve of the government to trace every trail of corruption over the last seven decades," he claimed.

Naidu also emphasised that the government aims to catch unscrupulous people who have tried to misuse the system and that legitimacy of big deposits will be scrutinised.

The minister stressed that the government will not rest till the last rupee in black money is accounted for.
Attacking Congress, Naidu said that while the party was

claiming that demonetisation was benefiting only the one per cent who are rich, it should answer on why 99 per cent people continue to be poor despite its long rule.

He said that during the last one year, the government has initiated a series of steps aimed at benefiting the common man.

The minister said that scandal-free governance, effective inflation management, increased FDI, enhanced pace of infrastructure creation, stepped up economic growth rate despite adversities, financial inclusion, transparent resource allocation, increased accountability and transparency in governance, positive macro-economic parameters among others have been the major outcomes of the efforts of the Modi dispensation in the past two-and-a-half years.

On the tourism front, he said that there has been a notable growth in the comparative figures of foreign tourist arrival (FTA), foreign exchange earning (FEEs) and online sale of e-tickets after demonetisation.

Regarding the agriculture sector, Naidu said that despite apprehensions about demonetisation adversely impacting Rabi sowing, the overall sowing across the country surpassed 573.42 lakh hectares, which is higher than the average sowing area for the last five years.

He said that Rabi sowing has increased by close to 6.37 per cent this year.

Referring to the railways, the minister said that earnings from cashless ticketing has increased 30 per cent and the number of people booking reserved tickets online using credit and debit cards or online transaction which was at 58 per cent in November, has now crossed 75 per cent.

Naidu also said that the prices of pulses were coming down while ease of doing business ranking improved from 142 to 130 at the global level.