BHOPAL: Aiming to usher more transparency into the political system, the Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha on Wednesday unanimously resolved that all members of the House would submit a detailed account of assets and liabilities (including of their dependents) before the Assembly by June 30 every year.
The House comprising 230 members (115 ruling Congress, 108 BJP, four independents, two BSP and one SP) unanimously passed the resolution that every member will submit a detailed account of assets-liabilities (including of their dependents) as on March 31 to the Principal Secretary (Vidhan Sabha) by June 30 every year.
The detailed account will either be in the format that is submitted submit to the Election Commission at the time of filing candidature or else in form of annual statement verified by a Chartered Accountant.
The details submitted by each MLA will subsequently be uploaded on the official website of the MP Vidhan Sabha.
The resolution was moved in the House by the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Govind Singh, who said it was in line with the promises made by the Kamal Nath-led Congress in its Vachan Patra (2018 assembly polls manifesto).
“Commoners used to point out at the change of fortune of a person once he becomes a lawmaker. People generally say that a person who once rode a cycle has amassed huge property after becoming an MLA and now travels in vehicles worth Rs 1 crore or so. This will bring much-needed transparency into the political system," the minister said.
While supporting the resolution, the Leader of Opposition (LoP) Gopal Bhargava and another BJP legislator Vishwas Sarang said “it would have been better had a bill been introduced in the House to enact a law in this regard.
The step is welcome, but enacting it as the law would have gone a long way in ensuring stringent punishment to violators, including all those rendering incorrect information.”
Another BJP MLA and former minister Ajay Vishnoi demanded that Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and allied services should also be brought under the purview of the resolution.
Assembly Speaker Narmada Prasad Prajapati, while concurring with BJP members, asked, “why only public representatives, the accountability papers of the other pillars of democracy too should come here.”
Responding to BJP members’ demand of enacting a law for making the practice compulsory and rendering punishment to violators, the parliamentary affairs minister said he would discuss the issue with the CM, as presently there is no law in this regard in those states, including Tamil Nadu, Bihar, UP and Uttarakhand where similar practice exists.