Author: TNN
Publication: The Times of India
Date: March 11, 2012
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Our-MLAs-their-monies-and-misdemeanors/articleshow/12215005.cms

Look who we voted for! Of the 40 victorious candidates who won in the March 3 election to become members of the Goa legislative assembly, 12 have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits. Twelve out of 40 means 30% of our legislators have criminal cases against them.

We have certainly progressed; in the 2007 assembly elections, only nine Goan MLAs (23%) had declared criminal cases against themselves. These statistics on the criminal and financial details of the newly-elected MLAs of Goa have been gleaned from the election affidavits by an NGO, Goa Election Watch.

Out of these 12 candidates with declared criminal cases, three have declared serious criminal cases like extortion, abetment of suicide, voluntarily causing grievous hurt, etc. The Congress has two and the Goa Vikas Party (GVP) has one such MLA.

GVP supremo and new Nuvem MLA Francisco 'Mickky' Pacheco has declared 10 cases against himself- the highest among all MLAS. These include charges related to extortion and abetment to suicide. The Congress' St Cruz MLA Atanasio 'Babush' Monserrate has declared two cases against himself including charges related to voluntary causing hurt. His wife, Congress' Taleigao MLA Jennifer, has declared one case including three charges related to voluntary causing hurt.

Amongst major parties, every party has MLAs who have declared criminal cases. Out of the BJP's magic figure of 21, seven MLAs (33%) have admitted cases against them. The Congress has three out of nine (33%), GVP has one out of two (50%) and only one out of five (20%) independent candidates has declared criminal cases against himself.

Out of all 40 MLAs analyzed from the Goa 2012 assembly election, 37 (93%) are crorepatis as compared to 55% crorepati MLAs in the Goa 2007 assembly election.

Congress' Poriem MLA Pratapsing Rane has declared the highest assets of 25.87 crore. He is followed by rebel Congressman, Fatorda's latest MLA Vijai Sardesai with 25.21 crore. Taleigao MLA Jennifer Monserrate (Congress) has declared assets worth 23.07 crore.

Three MLAs have declared assets of less than 1 crore. Twelve out of 40 MLAs (30%) declared liabilities of 1 crore and above.

Among major parties, the average asset per candidate for Congress is 13.41 crore, for MGP is 6.78 crore, for BJP is 4.96 crore and for GVP is 4.43 crore. A total of 20 (50%) MLAs (out of 40 analyzed) are graduates or with higher educational qualifications. Only two (5%) MLAs (out of 40 analyzed) have passed Class VIII and below. Only one out of 40 Goan MLAs is a woman (3%).

Average asset growth for re-contesting MLAs is 4.58 crore as compared to their assets in 2007. That means, the average percentage growth in assets of these MLAs is 171%.

Sardesai has the highest increase in assets worth 19.75 crore (from 5.45 crore to 25.21 crore), followed by Pratapsingh Rane with an asset increase of 17.04 crore (from 8.82 crore to 25.87 crore) and Pandurang alias Deepak Dhavalikar of MGP from Priol constituency with an asset increase of 11.98 crore (from 1.41 crore to 13.40 crore).