Over two years after CM Prithviraj Chavan issued a directive to ministers to disclose their assets to the office of the CM, 18 out of the 40 Maharashtra ministers are still to file their details.
Mr Chavan had asked all the ministers to declare their assets on December 10, 2010 and even sent them a reminder on April 29, 2011.
However, information received under an RTI query filed by activist Anil Galgali, has revealed that only 22 ministers have given details of their assets to the chief minister’s office in a closed envelope.
The RTI query has revealed that several leading ministers including home minister R.R. Patil have not adhered to the CM’s directive. “This shows that the CM has no hold on his colleagues…he is weak and working under pressure, and his so-called efforts to ensure clean governance is
all a farce,” Mr Galgali said.
The activist has dashed off a letter to the CM and demanded that he take serious action against the errant ministers. “Those ministers who have not declared their assets have no morals. If ministers from Bihar can declare their assets, what is stopping our ministers?” Mr Galgali asked.
Incidentally, in 2010, immediately after Mr Chavan had ordered his ministers to declare their assets, Mr Galgali had filed an RTI, seeking details of the assets declared by ministers. At the time, the reply said that none of the ministers had declared their assets.
In August 2012, a year after the CM issued the second reminder, Mr Galgali again filed an RTI and learnt that only 16 out of the 40 ministers had declared their assets. When he filed the third RTI in January 2013, it was revealed that only 22 ministers had declared their assets.
Despite repeated attempts, chief secretary Jayanth Banthia remained unavailable for comment.
When this reporter tried to contact the ministers, who have not submitted details of their assets, most of them, including the home minister Mr Patil, Mr Thorat, Vijay Kumar Gavit, Rajesh Tope, Bhaskar Jadhav were evasive. Jayant Patil and Sachin Ahir claimed that they had already submitted their details. Naseem Khan declined to comment.