Congress institutionalised corruption, says Javadekar

Bengaluru, Nov 8 (IANS) Attacking the Congress for observing Wednesday, marking the completion of one year of demonetisation, as a "black day", Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said the party had "institutionalised black money".

"Congress had institutionalised corruption and supported black money, while we (Bharatiya Janata Party) are bringing honesty and transparency into the system," Union Human Resource Development Minister Javadekar told reporters here.

Demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes on November 8 last year was a "historic" decision by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which "helped curb black money", he said.

"Today BJP is observing anti-black money day, while Congress is observing this day as black money support day," he said, adding that it was a a war of two political cultures.

Demonetisation was "one of the many decisions" taken by Modi government to fight corruption and terror funding, Javadekar asserted.

As a result of demonetisation, digital transactions in the country were up by 60 per cent, and the number of credit and debit cards had also gone up significantly, he said.

"Tax collection has increased by 15 per cent and the tax payer compliance is up by 25 per cent..all these things show positive impact of demonetisation."

He said that there were one lakh "highly suspicious" transactions that were identified after demonetisation was announced, he said that the goverment was looking into the matter and would take necessary action.

Protests were held across the state on Wednesday by Congress, which termed demonetisation as a "thoughtless act" by Prime Minister Modi.

The Aam Aadmi Party in the state had also taken part in the protests.