MCD: 49 newly elected councilors facing criminal charges

All the efforts to keep away the criminal charged representative from the house remained on paper only and the fact is that at least 49 newly elected councillors in Municipal Corporations of Delhi(MCD) have been charged with various criminal charges including murder, extortion and kidnapping. It is amazing that all the political parties have same history in this regard.

Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), a non-profit, political group working in the field of electoral reforms has revealed out the astonishing facts. Organisation has analysed the affidavit of all the councillors and reached some unique facts.

According to the reports, 49 have criminal cases pending against them. Apart from criminal charges, the councillors also boast of money power. Out of the 236 councillors, 120 or 51 percent are crorepatis.

Anil Bairwal, national co-ordinator of ADR said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) comes first in the list with 29 of its councillors facing criminal charges out of 121 elected, followed by Indian National Congress (INC) with 14 councillors out of 66. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has two councillors out of 14 while Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has one councillor out of three.

Analysis further revealed that out of the 49 newly elected councillors with declared criminal cases, 12 face serious criminal cases like murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, robbery and extortion. BJP has five, INC has four and BSP has one.

According to report, Satvinder Kaur Sirsa, representing BJP from ward number 103, Punjabi Bagh in west Delhi is the richest with assets worth Rs.112 crore. She is followed by Naresh Balyan, an independent from ward number 126, Nawada in west Delhi with assets worth Rs.57.23 crore and Manju Setia, Congress councillor from ward number 112 - Subhash Nagar in west Delhi with assets worth Rs.32.79 crore.

(With inputs from IANS)