The MlAs and Cabinet Ministers are required to submit details of their assets to the Vidhan Sabha Speaker within three months of being elected or being made a Cabinet Minister. However, out of the 70 MlAs in Uttarakhand, 40 MlAs and eight Cabinet Ministers had not provided details of their assets and liabilities to the Assembly within the stipulated time. This has been revealed by RTI activist Nadim Uddin.
In a statement issued to the media, the RTI activist has pointed out that under the UP Ministers and legislators (Publication of Assets and liabilities) Act, 1975, it is mandatory for MlAs and ministers to submit details of their assets and liabilities to the Assembly speaker within three months of being elected or appointed minister. The 40 MlAs who had not submitted the required information as as on October 15 are apart from five ministers also on the list. Kashipur resident Uddin had applied under the RTI Act seeking information from the Vidhan Sabha PIO on issues including the asset data of MlAs and ministers, its publication in a gazette and the regulations related to this.
Uddin States, “As per the communication received from the Vidhan Sabha PIO in response to my queries, it is stated that according to the UP Ministers and legislators (Publication of Assets and liabilities) Act, 1975, section III, within three months of being elected MlA or appointed minister, they are required to provide information about their assets and liabilities along with those of their family members. In addition to this, information on asset or liability acquired or sold by self or any family members has to be submitted by June 30 every year during tenure in office.
According to the information provided to me, till the date for publication of the gazette eight ministers and 40 MlAs had not provided the sought information. However, after publication of these MlAs in the gazette, two ministers- Harak Singh Rawat an Harish Chandra Durgapal during June 2015 and MlAs Navprabhat, Sunder lal Mandrawal and Amrita Rawat submitted the first details of their assets and liabilities to the Vidhan Sabha secretary in April, July and August 2015, respectively.
In addition to these, the 40 MlAs who had not submitted the complete details of their assets and liabilities include Malchand, Vijaypal Singh Sajwan, Rajendra Singh Bhandari, Vikram Singh, Mahavir Singh, Premchand Agrawal, Madan Kaushik, Adesh Chauhan, Hari Dass, Furkan Ahmed, Pradeep Batra, Pranav Singh ‘Champion’, Sarwat Kareem Ansari, Yatishwaranand, Ganesh Godiyal, Teerath Singh Rawat, Dalip Singh Rawat, Narayan Ram Arya, lalit Farswan, Shailendra Mohan Singhal, Arvind Pande, Rajkumar Thukral, Rajesh Shukla, Pushkar Singh Dhami, Harbans Kapur, Rekha Arya and Hira Singh Bisht,” stated the Kashipur based Nadim Uddin.