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30 new Corporators face criminal cases

Shame on the voters:

Only 55% Of 183 Winners Studied Beyond Std X

Times of India Mumbai 22/2/2012 Linah Baliga TNN 

Mumbai: The civic body is set to get a new house, but apparently not a very clean one. Some of the newly elected corporators’ education qualifications may also come as a disappointment. 
    Going by an analysis of 183 out of 227 winners’ affidavits of their assets and criminal backgrounds by an NGO, Mumbai Election Watch (MEW), 30 (16%) winners have criminal cases recorded against them, with 11 (6%) of them being charged with serious offences like theft, extortion, bribery and attempt to murder. The figure is much higher than that recorded during the 2007 polls when merely 3% of the contestants admitted to having criminal records or cases pending against them. 
    TOI vetted the affidavits of the 189 corporators to ascertain their educational qualifications and found that 45% had studied till Class X and less, and only one in three were graduates. 
    “While filing nomination forms, candidates were supposed to disclose pending criminal cases registered against them. The Representation of People Act (RPA) prescribes that if they are convicted of any crime, they cannot contest, but if the cases are still pending they can go ahead. However, the law requires them to disclose all the pending criminal cases on sworn affidavits. We have made translations based on the CrPC handbook,” said Ajit Ranade of MEW and the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR). 
    While 7% of the 183 corporators have not declared their permanent account number (PAN), the study indicates that some of the winners have lakhs or crores of rupees in assets, with 69 (38%) out of 183 winners being crorepatis. In fact, 28% of Sena’s candidates have assets in crores and in Congress, the figure is 25%. The average worth of per winner candidate from the Congress is Rs 3 crore, NCP Rs 2 crore and from Shiv Sena, BJP and the MNS, it is Rs 1 crore each. But seven out of the 183 have assets below Rs 1 lakh. MEW’s study says Brian Francis Miranda from the Congress is one of the richest corporators; the candidate from Kalina Village has movable and immovable assests worth Rs 43 crore with three criminal cases against him. When contacted by TOI, Miranda confirmed it. 
    As far as, education was concerned, TOI found that 45% of the 189 corporators had studied till Class X or not even that, and only one in three were graduates. But the qualification scene was not altogether dismal, with the corporation being peppered with several number of professionals, with at least five lawyers and five doctors. At Ward R North, which covers Dahisar, Mandapeshwar and Magathane, six out of seven corporators are graduates and some of them have professional degrees such as in medicine and architecture. 
    But experts say though education does enhance a corporator’s ability, formal education may not always be the best yardstick to judge his/her capabilities. “Education matters, but it is not as important as the middle-class feels it should be for running the corporation. Corporators must understand the local problems and the steps to be taken to mitigate such problems,” said former municipal commissioner D M Sukhtankar. 
    (With inputs by Madhavi Rajadhyaksha)