By Sanjay Pahwa, Chandigarh : Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Punjab Election Watch (PEW) which is an associate of National Election Watch (NEW) a nationwide campaign comprising of more than 1200 NGOs and other citizen led organizations, have been working on electoral reforms, improving democracy and governance in India.
They have brought out two reports based on the affidavit analysis of the winners of the Punjab 2012 Vidhan Sabha Elections. First report is the analysis of criminal cases, assets, income, liabilities, education, age and gender etc of the all 117 newly elected MLAs.
In the second report PEW has analyzed and compared affidavits of 74 MLAs of 2012 with their available affidavits from 2007 Assembly Elections. It compares their asset values/increase from the declarations of 2007 with declarations made in 2012.
Punjab Election Watch congratulates the newly elected MLAs and appeals them to ensure that the house functions for atleast 100 days in a year for the next 5 years so that ample time is devoted to the discussion of people’s issues in the state as well as for the discussions of the important legislations. It also requests the Shiromani Akali Dal not to make those MLAs who have criminal cases pending against them as ministers.
Highlights of the affidavit analysis of MLAs 2012
• Affidavits of all 117 MLAs have been analyzed by Punjab Election Watch (PEW).
• Out of 117 MLAs analyzed, 22 (19%) have pending criminal cases against them. Comparing this to Punjab 2007 Assembly Elections, out of 117 MLAs analyzed, 21 (18%) had pending criminal cases against them.
• Out of these 22 (19%) MLAs with pending criminal cases, there are serious criminal cases against 8 MLAs (7%).
• Out of 22 MLAs with pending criminal cases in Punjab 2012 Assembly, 11 MLAs are from INC, 9 from SAD and 2 are independent.
• MLAs with pending criminal cases have slightly increased from 21 in Punjab Assembly 2007 to 22 in Punjab Assembly, 2012.
• There are a total of 14 IPC charges of heinous nature on the MLAs. These included murder, kidnapping, extortion, etc.
• The number of crorepati MLAs has increased from 77 (66%) in Punjab 2007 Assembly Elections to 101 (86%) in Punjab Assembly, 2012.
• Out of 101 crorepati MLAs in Punjab 2012 Assembly, 47 are from SAD, 41 from INC, 10 from BJP and 3 are independent MLAs.
• Among major parties, the average asset per MLA for INC is Rs. 13.97 crores, for SAD is Rs 7.93 crores, and for BJP is Rs.4.68 crores.
• Average asset for a MLA from Punjab is Rs 9.92 crores.
• Out of 117 MLAs analyzed, 4 have not declared their PAN details.
• A total of 12 MLAs (10.3%) out of 117 MLAs have declared that they have never filed Income Tax returns.
• Out of the above 12 MLAs who have never filed ITR, 4 have not given their PAN details.
• A total of 64 (55%) MLAs (out of 117 analyzed) in Punjab 2012 Assembly Election are graduate and above.
• Out of 93 women candidates contested, only 14 won. Hence only 12% of MLAs in current Punjab Assembly are women.
Highlights of the asset comparison of MLAs with their 2007 affidavits.
• Number of MLAs of Punjab 2012 Assembly Elections whose 2007 affidavits are available – 74
• The average asset of these MLAs as declared in 2007 is Rs 5,73,59,031 (5.73 crore).
• The average asset of these MLAs as declared in 2012 is, Rs 9,17,19,055 (9.17 crore).
• Average asset growth for these re-contesting MLAs is Rs 3,43,60,023 (3.43 crore).
• Average percentage growth in assets for these MLA is 60%.
• Kewal Singh of INC from Barnala constituency has shown the highest increase in asset worth Rs. 71.67 Crores (from 6.83 Crores in 2007 to 78.51 Crores in 2012), followed by Adeshpratap Singh Kairon of SAD from Patti constituency with an asset increase of Rs. 30.41 Crores (from 20.81 Crores in 2007 to 51.23 Crores in 2012) and Sukhbir Singh Badal of SAD from Jalalabad constituency with an asset increase of Rs. 22.87 Crores (from 67.98 Crores in 2007 to 90.86 Crores in 2012).
• The highest percentage increase (1256%) has been for Sunil Kumar Jakhar of INC from Abhor constituency. His assets rose from 50.45 lakhs in 2007 to 6.84 Crores in 2012. He is followed by Navtej Singh of INC from Sultanpur Lodhi constituency with a percentage increase of 1057% (21.15 lakhs in 2007 to 2.44 Crores in 2012) and Kewal Singh Dhillon of INC from Barnala constituency with an increase of 1048% (6.83 Crores in 2007 to 78.51 crores in 2012).