The Congress-backed candidate for the position of President District Panchayat in Dehradun, Chaman Singh is more prosperous than his rival and the BJP candidate for the position Madhu Chauhan. Moreover, Madhu has a loan of Rs 4.50 lakh on her head, while her husband Munna Singh Chauhan has taken a loan of Rs 24.36 lakh from the State Bank of India, Rajpur Road branch.
This information was disclosed by the candidates along with the affid avit they submitted while filing their nomination papers.
Madhu Chauhan, the wife of senior BJP leader Munna Singh Chauhan, holds a Bachelor of Education (BEd) degree and is MA in history. She has disclosed that she has Rs 45,000 cash in hand, while her husband has Rs 1.0 lakh cash. Madhu has bank balance of Rs 2.29 lakh and has Rs 2.28 lakh in PPF account of SBI. She owns a Santro car (2008 model) while her husband does not own any vehicle.
The official BJP candidate has 375 gms of gold jewellery. She does not own any agricultural land, but her husband owns 5 hectares of land in his ancestral village. She has disclosed that she has plot in Dehradun which is worth Rs 12 lakhs. Interestingly, in the column mentioning income, she has shown that she has not paid any income tax last year.
Chaman Singh has agricultural land worth Rs 52.50 lakhs and owns three houses. His house located at Rajpur Road is worth Rs 55 lakhs as per his declaration.
Singh, who is younger brother of senior Congress leader and cabinet Minister Pritam Singh, has shown that he has Rs 1.5 lakh cash in hand while his wife Vasundhra has Rs 50,000 in hand. He has bank balance of Rs 9.29 lakhs and has invested Rs 3.25 lakh in debentures.
He pays a premium of Rs 25000 per year for three lIC policies. Singh has disclosed that his wife owns a shop worth Rs 14 lakhs on New Cant road in Dehradun.
The Congress backed candidate has informed that he has 100 grams of gold while his wife owns gold jewellery weighing 600 grams. Singh owns a Mahendra SUV and two houses in his native
village. He has disclosed an income of Rs 850800 in the return filed with income tax department last year.
SEC officials sans full poll info from districts
The State Election Commission (SEC) located at Dehradun is a constitutional authority mandated for supervision, direction and control of the elections of Panchayat and Urban local bodies in the State, but it is interesting to note that its
officials do not get all the information from the districts regarding the election.
On Thursday, this correspondent was amazed to know that the SEC does not have the list containing the names of the candidates for the Positions of President and Vice President District Panchayat.
The Deputy Secretary BP Pandey said that the SEC only has the number of the candidates for these positions.
He also added that the information like the personal and other information provided by the candidates while filing their nomination papers is available with the districts concerned only. Interestingly, during the earlier phases of the Panchayat elections in the State, the information like number of contestants and number of candidates who withdrew their names was available only after three to four days.
The SEC officials gave the excuse of distances and remote locations for very slow flow of information, an argument which is hard to buy in this age of information revolution.