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| Their assets have unique features | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
Jammu, Dec 14: Our politicians –seeking a seat in the legislative assembly –are courteous enough to respond to the guidelines of the Election Commission by declaring their assets (and liabilities, which are rare in their case). But a look at their profile –known to all –it appears that the assets have been either hurriedly listed or knowingly undervalued.
There is another interesting feature. Most of the politicians who are either multi-millionaires or close to touch a billion mark of their wealth have most of it in agricultural land –which is non taxable. For example, former Finance Minister Tariq Hameed Karra has assets close to Rs 66 Crores. His wealth worth Rs 65 Crores is in agricultural land. Some of the politicians who are known business tycoons, it appears have nothing in their own name. Former Minister and Peoples Democratic Party leader Maulana Iftikhar Hussain Ansari’s empire needs several days for calculation but the assets (including bank deposits) in his own name are only worth Rs 22 Crores.
Classic case of apparent undervalue of assets is of former Chief Minister and National Conference leader Dr Farooq Abdullah. He has four bungalows in his name including one at Gupkaar Road in Srinagar and another at Bathindi in Jammu. All four have been valued at Rs 3 Crores. This means value of his Bathindi bungalow is less than Rs One Crore which in any case is not.
This reporter has not obtained any professional evaluation of these assets but looking at the market rates it can be easily concluded that the assets have undervalued. This may be a hasty compilation of asset list if there are no other strong reasons for which the politicians should have undervalued their other assets and overvalued the agricultural land holdings.
Farooq Abdullah’s total net worth is Rs 9.63 Crores and he says that he is not aware of his wife’s assets including jewelry etc. “Since my family is away in London from April 1990, I have no knowledge items shown as cash deposits/ornaments…after ascertaining the facts, information shall be made available”, says Farooq in his affidavit filed before the returning officers of Hazratbal and Sonwar in Srinagar.
Former Finance Minister Tariq Hameed Karra is perhaps richest among the 1300 odd candidates contesting elections from 87 constituencies across Jammu and Kashmir. Even top business tycoons like Iftikhar Ansari or descendant of erstwhile ruling family Ajatshatru Singh are nowhere closer to Karra’s assets. Karra has said in his affidavit that he owns agricultural land in Srinagar which is valued at Rs 65 Crores. He is the lone of owner of this land which has not been divided in the family. His cash deposits, ornaments and insurance policies (including those of all family members) are worth Rs 23 lakhs.
Congress leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma has valued his Gandhi Nagar house at Rs 50 lakhs. Mangat’s house is located in the posh Green Belt area of Gandhi Nagar where 50 lakhs cant buy even half of that area.
Interestingly, Mangat has as many as seven bank accounts. It is not the large money which he has to keep in these accounts but probably many accounts have been opened for convenience. His total cash deposits are Rs 2,238,790 and the lowest amount in any of accounts is Rs 2222 and highest amount is Rs 769,306 which is in the form of fixed deposits.
The scion of royal Dogra dynasty Ajatshatru Singh is seeking election from Nagrota constituency. As he declared his assets in the affidavit filed before the returning officer, there is not much of his royalty to see in terms of assets in his name and the cash deposits. His worth has been pegged at Rs 2.40 Crores and that of his wife at Rs 2.1 Crores. A little over Rs 2.4 Crores of both husband and wife has been loaned out to Hari Villa hotels. What actually shows Ajatshatru’s royalty is his personal fleet of five cars valued at Rs 77 lakhs. He has an imported Porcsh worth Rs 40 lakhs. |
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