NEW DELHI, March 21: The Aam Aadmi Party does not seem to have begun the Punjab journey with a clean slate as per the records of the poll rights group Association for Democratic Reforms.
According to the ADR on Monday, Seven of the 11 newly sworn-in ministers in Punjab have declared criminal cases against themselves, with four of them facing serious charges. The 11 ministers include Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. The AAP, born out of the nation-wide agitation against alleged corruption in public life, had always taken pride in claiming that it did not allow criminals to join and thrive in the party.
Punjab Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms analysed the affidavits of all 11 ministers, including the CM. The ADR said seven ministers (64 per cent) have declared criminal cases against themselves. Four of them (36 per cent) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
Of the 11 ministers, nine are “crorepatis” and the average of their assets is ₹ 2.87 crore. The minister with the highest declared total assets is Bramh Shanker (Jimpa) from Hoshiarpur with assets worth ₹ 8.56 crore. Lal Chand from Bhoa (SC) constituency has the lowest declared total assets worth ₹ 6.19 lakh. Nine ministers have also declared liabilities. The minister with the highest liabilities is Bram Shanker, He has liabilities worth ₹ 1.08 crore.
The ADR said five ministers (45 per cent) have declared their educational qualification to be between Class 10 and 12 while the rest are graduate or above. Six ministers (55 per cent) have declared their age to be between 31 and 50 years while five (45 per cent) are aged 51 and 60, the ADR said.
Ten AAP MLAs were sworn in as Punjab ministers on Saturday. They are Harpal Singh Cheema, Harbhajan Singh, Dr Vijay Singla, Lal Chand, Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, Laljit Singh Bhullar, Bram Shanker Jimpa, Harjot Singh Bains and Dr Baljit Kaur.
Two days after they were inducted into the state cabinet, the chief minister Mann on Monday allocated portfolios to his ministers keeping with himself the home portfolio. Harpal Singh Cheema was appointed the finance minister of the state and Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer got the education ministry. Dr Vijay Singla, a dental surgeon, was assigned the health portfolio and Dr Baljit Kaur, an eye surgeon by profession and the lone woman in the cabinet, got the department of Social Security and Development of Women & Children.
The AAP registered a landslide victory in recently concluded Punjab Assembly polls, winning 92 seats, pushing most of its rivals to the margins. Congress won 18 seats in the 117-member Assembly.
Meanwhile, the AAP picked up the former cricketer Harbhajan Singh, its Punjab elections in-charge and currently Delhi MLA Raghav Chadda, IIT professor Sandeep Pathak and educationist Ashok Kumar Mittal as its nominees for the Rajya Sabha elections from Punjab scheduled to be held on March 31. Five Rajya Sabha seats will fall vacant on April 9.
“After making India Proud as a bowling legend, Mr. Turbanator is now going to raise his voice for the people of Punjab in Parliament,” AAP tweeted, sharing a video of Harbhajan Singh filling his nomination papers on Monday.
(Manas Dasgupta)