UP Villagers Not Impressed By PM's 'Jan Dhan' Advice, Say Holding Money In Accounts Will Put Them In Danger

Two days after PM Modi urged Jan Dhan account holders - at a rally in poll-bound UP's Moradabad city - to hold on to the money deposited into their accounts by people with illegal cash, villagers across many districts said the PM's advice didn't factor in "ground realities".

PTI

"The PM may have meant well, but the fact is not one Jan Dhan account holder who let his bank account be used by someone else (to park cash) can afford to keep the money with him," said Mahesh Kumar (name changed), a truck driver who works in Bareilly and lives in a neighbouring village.

"That would put our lives as well as those of our family at risk."

Kumar was contacted by an "agent" employed by a local entrepreneur to deposit illegal cash in his account days after my family," he said.

Kumar added, the agent, a local "dabang" (strongman), had also made the six of them sign withdrawal slips.

AFP

Another driver with a big Bareilly transporter said if he "betrayed" his employer, the latter would ensure no member of his family got a job in the area. The driver said the transporter deposited sums between Rs 50,000 and Rs 90,000 in 23 Jan Dhan accounts belonging to the wives of the drivers working for him.

"Our jobs are certainly more important than Rs 50,000," he said.

In Bahraich, a labourer who was promised 10% of Rs 2.5 lakh deposited in his Jan Dhan account, was told by the "agent" that the money belongs to "a big engineer". "How many of us will actually end up writing to the PM?" he asked.

A district magistrate in Uttar Pradesh, who did not wish to be named, said it was unlikely anyone would dare to heed the PM's call. The people who transferred the money and those who received it are bound by "bonds of loyalty and fear", he added.

thehindubusinessline.com

"We received several such cases in the first week of demonetisation when people started transferring black money into Jan Dhan accounts. We soon realised that people had transferred money to the accounts of those working for them for years. These included drivers, servants, gardeners and factory workers. They would rather go to jail than give up their patrons. They won't double-cross," the DM said.

Modi, addressing the party's parivartan rally in Moradabad on Saturday, had said, "I want to tell holders of Jan Dhan accounts that they should not withdraw this money. Write to me if someone intimidates you. I am trying to figure out how it (the money) can come to you."

PTI

He was referring to reports of Jan Dhan accounts being used to launder black money. Days after Modi's announcement on November 8 that currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 would be demonetised, many Jan Dhan accounts with as little as Re 1 and Rs 2 had suddenly seen a big surge in deposits.

Not just Jan Dhan accounts, many labourers in Agra said their employers herded them in buses and made them stand in queues every day for exchange of their old notes.

Following demonetisation, many factory owners in Agra had downed shutters for the first few days and deployed thousands of their workers at banks across the city.