The Bihar state government today moved ahead with its policy for "transparency" in public life by making declaration of movable and immovable assets mandatory for legislators by December 31 every year.
Speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary made the announcement today, the final day of the monsoon session of the Assembly.
"There is a need for maintaining transparency in public life and therefore, this year onwards, all MLAs would be required to submit their returns to the Assembly secretariat by December 31. These will be displayed on the official website of the Assembly," Choudhary said. The members of the state legislative council (MLCs) would also have to submit their yearly returns.
Choudhary said persons contesting elections for the Assembly and the council have to submit a list of their assets to the Election Commission (EC).
"MLAs will be required to submit their declaration in the same format they submit to the EC," the speaker clarified amid thumping of desks by the ruling party MLAs.
Incidentally, Leader of Opposition Abdul Bari Siddiqui had asked the government to clarify during the Question Hour if the land allotted by Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority to the kin of VVIPs was mentioned in the returns submitted by them. The chief minister, however, refused to give any statement on the land issue till the chief secretary submitted his report. ( )
When the Nitish government had returned to power, one of the first decisions taken by NDA-II government was getting members of the ministry to submit their annual returns and post it on the website.
The NDA-II government has followed this step by asking all its officials and employees, right from Grade I to Grade III, to declare their assets by February 28 and threatened to suspend salaries of those employees who failed to submit their declaration. Despite strong objections by a section of IAS officers on the pretext of violation of privacy, the government uploaded the asset declarations of all its employees and put it on the official web.
"Yearly declaration of assets by legislators was just a logical step," said chief minister Nitish Kumar.
In the last Lok Sabha and Assembly elections though the Election Commission put the declarations of candidates on the web, questions were raised at the sudden steep rise of wealth of certain politicians.
