Banerjee, while speaking to the media persons in New Delhi, stressed that the government of India and the Election Commission of India (EC) should sit together to work on a ‘model’ on how to go about it in the larger interest of the country.
She claimed that the issue was first raised by her party in 1994 and considering the present situation there is an urgent need for such reform for ‘more transparency’ in fighting elections when it comes to spending money during campaigns.‘Such model of ER is very much possible in India and the government should think about it. The political parties will only campaign and field their candidates,’ she said.
She suggested that there could be a model where donations from corporate houses under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities could be utilised in an organised and transparent manner by empowering the EC. ‘This is just a suggestion that a pool of legitimate donations through CSR could be used in poll purpose. Someone might come out with an extraordinary ways to deal with the ill gotten money during the election campaigns, but it is a time that the country should think in this regard,’ Banerjee said while adding that if such model could be formed than it will send a good message to the people.
‘The reform is certainly going to reflect peoples’ desires and there actual inclination through election results. Thousands of crores are invested during the election despite a ceiling from the EC. It would be much better if a corpus is created to make the election funding more transparent with details of single rupee spent on poll process,’ the chief minister added.
Ever since Banerjee became the chief minister of Bengal, she has been pressing for the reforms to counter the possibility of black money being pumped in during elections. She had also alleged
that those who fund politicians during elections decide the policies of the country as well as who should come into politics, become president, vice-president and chief ministers.
‘The practice (of using ill gotten money in polls) should come to an end. The government should seriously think about it,’ Banerjee said. As per statistics, West Bengal is one of the few states where the least amount of money in spent during elections. ‘We should have a value-based and corruption free politics through reforms,’ Banerjee said.
On the context of ongoing ‘black money’ controversy, she hinted that with the present effort, it would be difficult to bring back the money to India. ‘The union government should come out with some stringent law to deal with the menace,’ she added. She also said that she has asked her party MPs to raise the issue of FDI, Insurance Bill etc in the winter session of Parliament. ‘These are anti people issues and we should fight against it,’ she said.
She claimed that the issue was first raised by her party in 1994 and considering the present situation there is an urgent need for such reform for ‘more transparency’ in fighting elections when it comes to spending money during campaigns.‘Such model of ER is very much possible in India and the government should think about it. The political parties will only campaign and field their candidates,’ she said.
She suggested that there could be a model where donations from corporate houses under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities could be utilised in an organised and transparent manner by empowering the EC. ‘This is just a suggestion that a pool of legitimate donations through CSR could be used in poll purpose. Someone might come out with an extraordinary ways to deal with the ill gotten money during the election campaigns, but it is a time that the country should think in this regard,’ Banerjee said while adding that if such model could be formed than it will send a good message to the people.
‘The reform is certainly going to reflect peoples’ desires and there actual inclination through election results. Thousands of crores are invested during the election despite a ceiling from the EC. It would be much better if a corpus is created to make the election funding more transparent with details of single rupee spent on poll process,’ the chief minister added.
Ever since Banerjee became the chief minister of Bengal, she has been pressing for the reforms to counter the possibility of black money being pumped in during elections. She had also alleged
that those who fund politicians during elections decide the policies of the country as well as who should come into politics, become president, vice-president and chief ministers.
‘The practice (of using ill gotten money in polls) should come to an end. The government should seriously think about it,’ Banerjee said. As per statistics, West Bengal is one of the few states where the least amount of money in spent during elections. ‘We should have a value-based and corruption free politics through reforms,’ Banerjee said.
On the context of ongoing ‘black money’ controversy, she hinted that with the present effort, it would be difficult to bring back the money to India. ‘The union government should come out with some stringent law to deal with the menace,’ she added. She also said that she has asked her party MPs to raise the issue of FDI, Insurance Bill etc in the winter session of Parliament. ‘These are anti people issues and we should fight against it,’ she said.