E-Paper
28% of Goa lawmakers have criminal cases pending against them
According to the Goa Election Watch report, average assets of BJP MLAs are ₹11.97 crores, ₹17.02 crores that of Congress and 8.55 crores of Goa Forward Party
Eleven or 28% of lawmakers in Goa have criminal cases pending against them, according to an Association for Democratic Reforms and Goa Election Watch report. The report was released on Monday ahead of the assembly elections in Goa that are due next year.
“7 out of 27 MLAs (members of legislative assembly) from (ruling) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 1 out of 5 MLAs from Indian National Congress, out of 3 MLAs from Goa Forward Party, 1 out of 1 MLA from Nationalistic Congress Party (NCP) and 1 out of the 3 Independent MLAs have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits,” the report said. It added nine MLAs face serious criminal cases including one related to sexual assault.
The report said all the lawmakers are “crorepatis” with average assets of ₹11.75 crore per MLA. It added the average assets of BJP MLAs are ₹11.97 crores, ₹17.02 crores that of Congress, 8.55 crores of Goa Forward Party. The lone NCP and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak MLAs have assets worth ₹13.06 crores and ₹10.58 crores. Three Independent MLAs have average assets of ₹4.14 crores.
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BJP MLA Michael Vincent Lobo has declared the highest assets-- ₹54 crores.
The report analysed the criminal, financial and other background details of all the MLAs on the basis of their affidavits submitted ahead of the 2017 elections and the by-elections thereafter.
Another report found that on average, the Goa assembly functioned for 16 days annually with the longest being the 10th session in 2019 from July 15 to August 9 of 20 sittings.
