Informing the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan that 73 newly elected members of the State Assembly possess criminal background, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has urged that there members should not be included in the Cabinet.
The ADR also urged that the MlAs with criminal antecedents are not trusted with chairs of responsibility inside the State Assembly such as in standing committees, financial committees etc. Also, please make sure that the wealthy MlAs who possess high assets should not be assigned a portfolio in the council of Ministry that poses a conflict of interest with his/her business interests.
The ADR wrote letter to the Chief Minister on behalf of Madhya Pradesh Election Watch (MEW), the Madhya Pradesh state chapter of National Election Watch, that is a network of over 1200 Civil Society groups across the country. It was also pointed out in the letter that 73 newly elected MlAs have declared criminal cases against them out of which 45 MlAs have declared serious criminal cases.
The ADR requested Chouhan that no tainted MlA be made Ministers or given chairs of responsibilities inside state assembly such as in standing committees, financial committees etc, even the Chairmen of Co-operatives, Banks and other State Government bodies should also not be tainted.
It urged that annual asset declarations of all MlAs should be made a rule in the assembly and annual asset declarations of all Ministers should be made compulsory. Institute a register of interest in the assembly to declare their financial interests along the lines of Rajya Sabha and take steps to make proceedings of the Assembly online - specifically attendance, questions asked etc. Besides, it asked to institute an annual online reporting of MlA fund utilization and status of works initiated.