Source: 
Indian Express
Author: 
Date: 
01.02.2022
City: 
Chandigarh

As Punjab gets set to elect a new Assembly, an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Punjab Election Watch has found that 81% of sitting MLAs of the outgoing House are crorepatis, while 38% are between Class 8 and 12 pass in terms of educational qualifications. The ADR and Punjab Election Watch findings are based on analysis of 113 poll affidavits of sitting MLAs of the outgoing Punjab Vidhan Sabha filed during 2017 (or later in case of bypolls). Punjab Assembly has strength of 117 members and the remaining 4 constituencies out of 117 are currently vacant.

Further, 16 (14%) MLAs of the present Vidhan Sabha have declared criminal cases against themselves and 12 (11%) out of those have declared serious criminal cases. These include cases like murder, attempt to murder and crimes against women.

Six MLAs in the present Vidhan Sabha, who have changed their political parties so far are Jagtar Singh Hissowal from Raikot (AAP to Congress), Rupinder Kaur Ruby of Bathinda Rural (AAP to Congress), Nazar Singh Manshahia of Mansa (AAP to Congress), Gurmeet Singh Sodhi of Guru Har Sahai (Congress to BJP), Parminder Singh of Lehra (SAD to SAD-Samyukt) and Capt Amarinder Singh from Patiala constituency (Congress to Punjab Lok Congress).

Party-wise look at the MLAs reveals that 8 (10%) out of 81 MLAs from Congress, 3 (25%) out of 12 MLAs from AAP, 2 (15%) out of 13 MLAs from SAD, one (100%) out of one MLA from Punjab Lok Congress and 2 (100%) out of 2 MLAs from Lok Insaaf Party have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits. In party-wise serious criminal cases criteria, 6 (7%) out of 81 MLAs from Congress, 1 (8%) out of 12 MLAs from AAP, 2 (15%) out of 13 MLAs from SAD, 1(100%) out of one MLA from Punjab Lok Congress and 2(100%) out of 2 MLAs from Lok Insaaf Party have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

The average of assets per sitting MLA is Rs 13.34 crore and 92 (81%) are crorepatis. In terms of party wise average assets, the average assets per MLA for 81 Congress MLAs analysed is Rs 14.88 crores, that of 12 AAP MLAs is Rs.6.25 crores, and of 13 SAD MLAs is Rs 9.80 crores. The BJP MLAs have average assets of Rs.7.42 crores, 2 Lok Insaaf Party MLAs have average assets of Rs 10.14 crores, one Punjab Lok Congress MLA has average assets of Rs.48.31 crores and 1 Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt) MLA has average assets of Rs 9.62 crores.

MLAs with highest assets in the outgoing Vidhan Sabha are Raminder Singh Awla of Congress from Jalalabad who has declared his assets at Rs 283 crores, Rana Gurjit Singh of Congress from Kapurthala at Rs 169 crores and Aman Arora of AAP at Rs 65 crores. MLAs with lowest assets are Rupinder Kaur Ruby of Congress from Bathinda Rural at Rs 1.74 lakh, Kulwant Singh Pandori of AAP from Mehal Kalan at Rs 2.70 lakh and Baljinder Kaur of AAP from Talwandi Sabo at Rs 3.65 lakh.

MLAs with highest liabilities are Rana Gurjit Singh at Rs 81 crores, Raminder Singh Awla at Rs 27 crores, Aman Arora at Rs 15 crores.

MLAs with highest income declaration are Navjot Singh Sidhu of Congress from Amritsar East at Rs 9.9 crores, Raminder Singh Awla of INC from Jalalabad at Rs 8.53 crores and Aman Arora of AAP from Sunam at Rs 4.23 crores as per their Income Tax returns.

In terms of education, 43(38%) MLAs have declared their educational qualification to be between Class 8 and Class 12 pass, while 68 (60%) MLAs have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above whereas 2 MLAs are diploma holders. In these, 38 per cent MLAs, 6 are Class 8 pass, 21 are Class 10 pass and 16 are Class 12 pass.

In terms of age, 47% MLAs have declared their age to be between 25 and 50 years, while 52% MLAs have declared their age to be between 51 and 80 years. One MLA has declared his age at 89 years.

Out of 113 MLAs analysed only 7 (6%) MLAs are women.

Jaskirat Singh and Parvinder Singh Kittna of ADR and Punjab Election Watch said, “These MLAs are public representatives but they are obviously not like the average citizen and have much more money and muscle power. We appeal to voters to very carefully choose their representatives who do not need so much money and muscle power to win elections.”

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