Akhilesh Yadav says PM Modi not prepared to accept bitter truth of demonetisation, GST impact

Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday slammed the Centre over demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not prepared to accept the reality of their impact.

Yadav also criticised the BJP on various issues including loan waiver for farmers and corruption.

There was no other party that “lies as much as the BJP does”, the former UP CM said while addressing the people at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Yadav Dharmshala in Vrindaban.

He lashed out at the BJP government saying the party has “deliberately mislead the people to the extent that my party could not come to power.”

During the elections in UP, the BJP did not give the specifics of the loan waiver scheme for farmers and later riders after riders were introduced which resulted in the majority being deprived of the benefits, Yadav alleged.

Demonetisation and the GST has forced the people to come out on the road, he claimed.

While small traders have been badly hit due to demonetisation and the GST, the youth have been rendered unemployed, he alleged.

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It is sad that PM Modi is not prepared to accept the true picture of the impact of demonetisation and GST, Yadav said.

He also dismissed the Prime Minister’s assertion that corruption has been eradicated after demonetisation.

In a series of attack, he alleged BJP claims that by 2022, it would ensure that the income of farmers would double but so far the reverse has happened.

In spite of the claim of Yogi Adityanath’s government in UP that it has allotted Rs 400 crores for potato growers, Yadav claimed the potato growers of Kannauj, Farrukhabad, Agra and Mathura were not even getting the cost price for their produce.

“The farmers are not even getting advantage of Kisan Durghatna Yojna,” he claimed.

He held the UP government responsible for the death of children at a Gorakhpur hospital.

The government data shows the death toll of the children in Gorakhpur as 60 but the fact is that it is in hundreds, Yadav claimed.

Families, which had been waiting for an issue for the last eight years, also lost their babies, he said.

The worst part of incident was that those affected were not provided any relief, while the Samajvadi Party has given relief of Rs two lakh to the victim’s families, Yadav said.

In his address, he also backed the demand of reservation for the Yadavs.

“We don’t was to deprive the claim of anyone, however Yadavs may be given reservation on the basis of their population,” the former chief minister said.

(With PTI inputs)

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