Will jail those who deposited black money in Jan Dhan accounts: Modi

Muzaffarnagar, Dec 4: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday acknowledged the inconvenience caused to people by demonetisation policy and warned those who were stashing their black money into the Jan Dhan accounts of poor.

Modi was speaking at Bharatiya Janata Party's Parivartan Yatra rally in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad on Saturday, where he thanked the people of the region for extending support to the party during the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

"I have not fought from Uttar Pradesh only to become an MP but wanted to initiate the fight against poverty from this huge state," Modi said.

Once again, Modi in his today's speech maintained that inconveniences faced by the public today in the aftermath of demonetisation policy would ease in 50 days.

"There will be hardships for now, but things are already improving. I salute citizens of the country," he said, adding it was a queue that would put an end to all other queues in the country.

Issuing a warning to those who were stashing their black money into the bank accounts of poor people, Modi said, "Those who have stashed black money are queuing up outside the house of poor people, asking for their help. Have you ever seen rich people touching the feet of poor. I am finding ways to put behind bars those guilty of stashing their black money into the Jan Dhan accounts of the poor," PM Modi said.

"The November 8 decision to spike high-value currency notes had rattled those who hoarded large quantities of black money. The dishonest people can't go to the bank and therefore, they are now queuing up in front of the houses of the poor and trying to mislead them," he said.

Taking potshot at previous government which was embroiled in multiple scams, Modi said political parties in power in the past had worked only for themselves and for their near ones but not for the poor.

"Has this country not been held back by corruption? Don`t we need to weed out this corruption? Will this corruption go away on its own?" he asked.

Modi said corruption was at the root of all problems and that he was shocked that some people were criticising him for taking steps to fight it.

"I am surprised that in my own country some people are accusing me. Is it a sin that those who were the looting country were now being made accountable?"

He said he had no vested interest. "I am a fakir (hermit). I will pack my bags and leave".

The Prime Minister said poverty needed to be eradicated from big states if India was to progress.

"To eradicate poverty from the country, we first need to eradicate poverty from the bigger states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, West Bengal," he said.