Patna, Jan. 2: Cutting across party lines, the people’s representatives in the Assembly appear reluctant to put their asset details on public domain. Only 90 MLAs furnished information about their property to the Assembly secretariat till December 31, the last date of filing the details.
The list of defaulters includes Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Abdul Bari Siddiqui, Rameshwar Chaurasia of the BJP and JD(U) MLA Jai Kumar.
Of the 243 legislators in the Assembly, 23 are ministers. They submit their asset details to the cabinet co-ordination department.
The rest of the 220 MLAs are supposed to furnish their asset details to the secretary of the House. But around 60 per cent of them, 130 to be precise, faltered.
The chairpersons of Bihar Legislative Assembly and Bihar Legislative Council had issued a directive, asking the MLAs and MLCs to submit a list of their movable and unmovable assets by December 31 after chief minister Nitish Kumar stressed last year that there should be transparency about the legislators’ assets.
The lukewarm response from the MLAs punched holes in Nitish’s initiative, while Siddiqui questioned the logic behind the declaration of assets separately to the Assembly secretariat.
“I submit my income-tax returns. I also declared assets before the Election Commission. I fail to understand why this is needed,” he said.
The Leader of the Opposition, however, said, he was getting his papers in order and would submit his declaration in the Assembly secretariat within four days.
So would Chaurasia of the BJP. “I am in Delhi. I had asked my personal assistant to submit the declarations. But it appears he is yet to obtain the bank statements. I will submit the details within a few days after the statements are obtained.”
The JD(U)’s Jai Kumar pleaded that he had not been able to submit his declaration because he could not get the relevant documents to show the assets of his spouse. “The statement of a bank account is also pending,” he added.
BJP MLA Usha Vidyarthi withdrew her declaration after submitting it today claiming that she had made a mistake in it.
The reluctance of the MLAs on furnishing asset details has left the speaker worried.
“I will urge the MLAs to submit their declaration by the earliest,” Speaker Uday Narain Choudhary told The Telegraph today before going out of the town.
The Assembly secretariat appeared clueless on how to go about the matter.
“Technically, Monday was supposed to be the last day for submitting the declarations as December 31 and January 1 were Saturday and Sunday, respectively, and the office was closed. But the MLAs appear to be in no hurry to submit their declarations,” said an official, adding that the Assembly secretariat would accept declarations submitted by the defaulting MLAs in the absence of any clear directive from the speaker’s office.
The situation in the Bihar Legislative Council is far better. “I have already submitted my declaration and expect all MLCs to submit theirs,” said its chairman Tarakant Jha.
The present strength of the council is 73. Six of them are ministers and submit their asset details to the cabinet co-ordination department.
Of the rest of the 67 MLCs, 65 have furnished their asset details. Two did not till this evening.
One among them — JD(U) MLC Sanjay Singh — said: “I was outside Patna for the past few days. I will be submitting my declaration within a couple of days.”
The secretary of the Bihar Vidhan Parishad, Prabhat Kumar Jha, said the assets of the MLCs would be posted on the website by January 4.
