Declare actual information about income & assets in affidavits

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Declare actual information about income & assets in affidavits

11/24/2014 11:57:16 PM

Candidates fighting the Assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir need to know that there is a big difference between their income and their assets.Assets can be build over years of hard work or these assets can be inherited by the candidates from their parents or grand parents.Hence there is no need for them to hide their income or information about their assets in case they are able to explain how they were able to build these assets. However,most of the candidates do not have the proper knowledge about the difference between their assets and their income and that is why some of the candidates are trying to hide information about their actual income.Some believe that if they hide their exact income they would not get summons from the income Tax department when they should know that as MLAs their monthly income is an open secret and in case their income exceeds the limit set by the income Tax authorities for tax relief deductio9ns would be made at the source.In addition to this each MLA is supposed to file their annual returns and those who do not file their returns violate the existing law.Even if they do not file their returns tax deductions would be made at the source.
If candidates in the affidavits filed by them for contesting the forthcoming Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir are to be believed, the lawmakers try to make people believe that they draw monthly salary which varies from person to personThis claim is atrocious because each legislator draws uniform salary.If there is any difference it can be in case of allowances.Most of the sitting MLAs in J-K assembly who are seeking re-election have declared a monthly income of Rs 80,000, but there are several who have showed incomes far lower.Nazir Ahmad Khan, a minister of state in the Omar Abdullah-led government and the National Conference candidate from the Gurez Assembly segment, has declared a monthly income of Rs 35,000 only.Congress candidate from Inderwal, Ghulam Mohammad Saroori, too, has declared a monthly income of Rs 35,000 while VikarRasoolWani, a minister and the Congress candidate from Banihal, has stated that his monthly income is nearly Rs 42,000 per month.NC candidate from Sonawari and Higher Education Minister Mohammad Akbar Lone has declared monthly income of Rs 40,000. Opposition PDP MLA from Bandipora Nizam-uddin Bhat, who is also in the fray for the first phase of polls on Tuesday, has surprisingly shown his monthly income to be Rs 82,000 per month more than some of the ministers.
There are some ministers, whose fate will be decided in polling on Tuesday, who have shown monthly income of more than Rs 1 lakh per month. These include NC candidates from the Kangan and Kishtwar Assembly segments, MianAltaf Ahmad (Rs 1.04 lakh) and Sajad Ahmad Kitchloo (Rs 1.07 lakh).However,among the 123 candidates who are in the fray in 15 Assembly constituencies, that go to the polls on November 25,46 are crorepatis.Crorepatis not in the sense of their monthly income but in the form of their assets.And the same Mian Altaf, who has declared his income to be around Rs.1.04 lakhs has assets worth over Rs.13.80 crores, followed by PDP cand-idate, YasirReshi with over Rs.13.40 crores and by NC MLA, SajjadKichloo with over Rs.10.77 crores. As far as MianAltaf and Kichloo are concerned all these assets they have shown in their affidavits have been inherited by them.And the problem with some of the legislators,who have been seeking reelection,is that they have not been briefed by competent officials of the Assembly secretariat.They should have sought help from legal experts before filing their affidavits. Those legislators, who have been seeking reelection and have shown much less income in their affidavits,seem to have delinked allowances and other perks from the actual monthly salary. In case some of them have been earning interest on their FDRs they should include that interest in the monthly income statement. However,when compared to the incomes and assets of legislators and parliamentarians in rest of the country those in the poll in Jammu and Kashmir stand no where.Majority of legislatgors and parliamentarians have assets worth several hundred crores of rupees.When they do not have any hesitation in making a mention of those assets in their affidavits why should those in the poll fray in Jammu and Kashmir try to hide details about their income and assets.

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