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Right to Information/ Transparency/ Accountability/ Right to Hearing | Akhil sniffs out hidden assets

Akhil sniffs out hidden assets

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published Published on Feb 20, 2011   modified Modified on Feb 20, 2011
Peasant leader and RTI activist Akhil Gogoi, who is spearheading an anti-corruption campaign in the state almost single-handedly, will move the Election Commission with details of property owned by ministers and their families ahead of the forthcoming Assembly elections.

Gogoi today said the recent asset lists made public by some of the ministers revealed only a small portion of their assets, scattered across different parts of the state.

“Using the RTI Act, I have gathered details of both moveable and immovable properties owned by the ministers and their families in different parts of the state and the assets lists declared recently included only a small portion of these,” Gogoi said at a news conference here today.

Gogoi, also the general secretary of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity, started off with the state health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who seems to be his pet bete noire, and his wife and charged him with owning property not mentioned in his assets list.

He said RTI applications filed by the organisation revealed that Sarma and his wife, Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, owned land at Kaziranga, North Guwahati and Khanapara, about which there was no mention in the assets list.

“I filed an RTI application with Bokakhat circle office and in reply it came to light that more than 11 bighas in Chepena Koboa village and Halowa village were in the name of the minister’s wife. Subsequently, out of this, six bighas and one katha was transferred to the name of a close aide of the minister, Ranjit Bhattacharyya. The cost of this land will be several crores of rupees, but you will find no mention about it in the assets list,” Gogoi said.

“We have seen that in the recent list, the minister did not even include the properties he declared in his affidavit before 2006 elections. Besides, there are huge properties he did not make public,” said Akhil.

He said the organisation was collecting details of the properties of all ministers and their families and would submit a list with all the documents to the Election Commission soon.

Gogoi, who won two national RTI awards, warned about the use of money power by politicians to woo voters during the Assembly elections. “There is largescale corruption in every government department and we have seen no corrective steps taken so far, we believe that there will be flow of black money during the next election,” Akhil said.

“Even the Election Commission has expressed concern about the use of money power in the elections, and we urge the commission to keep a watch, to ensure that the Assam elections are free of this phenomenon,” said Gogoi.

The Telegraph, 21 February, 2011, http://telegraphindia.com/1110221/jsp/northeast/story_13609816.jsp


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