The State Bank of India has denied to divulge the
buyer’s name of Rs above one crores
denomination bonds who had bought to donate in election. It is important that
the CIC central information commission had, two days ago, asked the Union
Government who had demanded to keep the donor's’ name under electoral bond
scheme to be classified.
Anjali Bharadwaj, the social worker who is carrying out a
campaign for the accountability and the transparency, had asked four questions
from SBI under the law of Right to Information Act. The questions are as
follows: Since January 2, 2018 till the application filed date, how many bonds
were sold; how much of cost price these were; the numbers of 'denomination
bonds' under the price range worth Rs above one crore; and who were the buyers?
The questions were queried from the 29 branches of SBI.
23 of the 29 branches replied. The bonds 11,770 of worth
Rs 5936.7 crore have been sold. The 5463 bonds are worth of one crore
denomination; namely, the gross fund of 92 per cent was donated from the bonds
of Rs one crore. The six branches of banks have not yet sent their replies.
All the branches of SBI did not informed to having told
the reasons of secrecy of doners and made reference to the sections 8-1(e) and
8-1(j) of RTI act. Anjali Bharadwaj said, “ When the government was drafting
the electoral bond scheme, the first of scheme texture it had been decided that
who bought the bonds would be out of the purview of RTI, but we are aware that
in the final draft texture of the scheme it was not added. It has been removed.
It is clear what we have asked the information – all are under the perview of
law.
It is important that the CIC had directed to the
government about to tell who had demanded to keep secret the donor's name
through electoral bod scheme. The CIC had expressed it displeasure over this –
that the filed RTI in this connection are replied half-baked. On Venktesh Naik,
RTI worker who filed an appeal, Information Commissioner, Mr Suresh Chandra,
had issued notice to the Public Information Officers of economic wing in
finance ministry. The notice said why they should not be punished by the fines
of not giving the information within the 30 days.
Anybody, organisation, NGO or corporate can buy fives
separate denomination bonds for the election donation under the electoral bonds
scheme launched in January 2018 by Modi government. These bonds are in the
range of 10 thousand, one lac, 10 lacs and one crore. However there is no limit
to donate the party under this scheme.
Amrita Johary, the social worker, is to say whatever the
reasons by banks for not disclosing the names are not correct, she says, “it is
clear in RTI law that if the asked informations are in the public interest,
that should be given.” She adds, “the election is the play of money and the
buyers of above Rs one crore are either big industrialists or the influential
men who can affect over the policies of government – so this RTI cannot be
ignored.”
The information collected through the RTI appeal by
Anjali Bharadwaj tells that the maximum bonds had been sold by SBI’s Mumbai
branch, which are worth of Rs 1879 crore. The 95 per cent fund for the donation
were bought from the Denomination Bonds of Rs one crore. Then the
chronologically were bought in ascending order from SBI branch Kolkata, Delhi,
and Hyderabad. The 90 per cent of donation fund’s bonds Rs above one crore were
bought from here.
According to the organisation, Association for Democratic
Reforms (ADR), working for the transparency in election, more than 12000 bonds
of Rs 6128 crore so far have been bought. The 60 per cent of gross donation
through the bonds in the FY 2018-19 was credited in the account of BJP.
There have been controversies on the electoral bonds
issue. However the government kept on saying that this scheme was dutiful to
prevent the black money in the election. There is to be heard the case in the
apex court this month.However SBI is going to open another window to buy electoral
bonds since Monday this week. There can be bought electoral bonds since 13
January to 22 January. The founder of ADR Jagdeep Chhoker says, “After the
directives of CIC the banks must disclose the donor's’ name. They shall have to
disclose the donor’s name; but they are suppressing the information—this shows
that there is some bungling.”
