The report also discloses that the average assets per sitting Meghalaya MLA are valued at ₹7.80 cr, with the UDP’s eight MLAs leading across parties in average assets of ₹14.45 cr
Over 70% of sitting MLAs in Meghalaya are crorepatis in the state’s outgoing assembly, whereas 2% of the lawmakers have declared serious criminal cases against themselves, a report by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) said.
“Out of 41 sitting MLAs analysed, 29 (71%) are crorepatis. 14 (70%) out of 20 MLAs from the National People’s Party, 5 (63%) out of 8 MLAs from the All India Trinamool Congress, 6 (75%) out of 8 MLAs from United Democratic Party, 3 (100%) out of 3 MLAs from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and 1 (50%) out of 2 from Peoples Democratic Front MLAs have declared assets valued at more than ₹1 crore,” the ADR report added.
The report also discloses that the average assets per sitting Meghalaya MLA are valued at ₹7.80 crore, with the United Democratic Party’s (UDP) eight MLAs leading across parties in average assets of ₹14.45 crore.
The average assets per MLA for 20 NPP MLAs analysed is ₹6.65 crore, and eight All India Trinamool Congress MLAs hold assets of ₹6.05 crore on average.
Three BJP MLAs own average assets of ₹6.39 crore, whereas two Peoples Democratic Front MLAs hold average assets of ₹1.90 crore.
ADR and Meghalaya Election Watch analysed the criminal, financial and other background details of 41 out of 60 sitting MLAs.
In the current state assembly, 19 seats are vacant with the rest of the seats occupied by the National People’s Party at 20, All India Trinamool Congress at 8 seats, and United Democratic Party at 8 seats.
“Out of 41 sitting MLAs analysed, 1 (2%) MLA has declared criminal cases against himself. 1 (2%) MLA, Marcuise N Marak, representing constituency William Nagar, has declared serious criminal cases against himself,” read the ADR report.
The ADR report also notes that Metbah Lyngdoh, a UDP member representing the Mairang constituency, holds the highest number of assets as an MLA in the state at over ₹87 crore, followed by Dasakhiatbha Lamare and Comingone Ymbon, both members of NPP, with total assets of over ₹40 crore and ₹26 crore respectively.
Out of 41 MLAs, 18 (44%) have declared their education qualification to be between class 8 and 12 passed, while 23 (56%) MLAs declared an educational qualification of graduate or above.
With seven MLAs and six class 12 passed legislators, the National People’s Party leads in the highest number of MLAs above the class 12 pass mark.
16 (39%) MLAs have declared their age to be between 25 and 40 years, whereas 24 (59%) MLAs have declared their age to be between 41 and 60 years, and just one MLA declared their age above 60.
Highlighting severe gender disparity in the sitting Meghalaya assembly, out of 41 MLAs analysed, only 2 (5%) MLAs are women.
Meghalaya will go to polls on February 27.
