SHILLONG, July 23: All the 12 ministers in Meghalaya, India’s second-poorest state, are crorepatis and so are many other politicians, elected or otherwise.
In its latest report, the NITI Aayog ranked Bihar as the poorest state in the country. In terms of deprivation (poverty), Bihar leads the chart with 37.21% of its population marked poor followed by Meghalaya (31.3%), Uttar Pradesh (30.03%), Jharkhand (29.75%), and Arunachal Pradesh (22.21%).
According to a report of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) published earlier this year, Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma and 11 other ministers analysed are crorepatis.
The ministers are Sniawbhalang Dhar, Prestone Tynsong, Comingone Ymbon, Marcuise N. Marak, Ampareen Lyngdoh, Abu Taher Mondal, Rakkam A. Sangma, Paul Lyngdoh, Kyrmen Shylla, Alexander Laloo Hek, and Shakliar Warjri.
The average assets of the ministers analysed are worth Rs 11.45 crore, the ADR report said.
Dhar, representing the Nartiang Assembly seat, tops the table with assets worth Rs 45.35 crore. Rakkam Sangma from Rongara-Siju constituency is at the bottom of the list with assets worth Rs 1.71 crore.
The ADR report added that seven ministers declared liabilities, Dhar’s being the highest at Rs 3.42 crore.
The report also said that out of the 59 winning candidates analysed, 45 (76%) are crorepatis. Of the 59 MLAs whose assets were analysed during the 2018 assembly elections, 39 (66%) MLAs were crorepatis.
Party-wise, 20 (77%) of the 26 NPP legislators, nine (82%) out of the UDP’s 11, four (80%) out of the TMC’s five, three (60%) out of the Congress’s five, and two (100%) out of two the BJP’s two declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore.
The ADR report further said that the assets of 22 candidates who won were Rs 5 crore and above while the assets of 12 others were worth Rs 2-5 crore.
A deeper analysis revealed each NPP winner has assets worth Rs 6.83 crore, less than half of Rs 14.91 crore per each TMC winning candidate. The value of assets per UDP winning candidate is Rs 19.96 crore, which is nowhere near the Rs 32.21 crore per HSPDP legislator.
The average assets of the re-elected MLAs in 2018 was Rs 7.62 crore. The figure for the 34 re-elected in 2023 jumped to Rs 13.39 crore. The rate of growth in the average assets of re-elected MLAs has been 76%, the ADR report said.
A NITI Aayog report released on July 17, tagged Meghalaya as India’s second-poorest state after Bihar.
Bihar topped the chart in terms of deprivation (poverty) with 37.21% of its population poor, followed by Meghalaya (31.3%), Uttar Pradesh (30.03%), Jharkhand (29.75%) and Arunachal Pradesh (22.21%).
The deprivation score is the sum of weighted status of all indicators for an individual who scores more than 0.33 as measured by NITI Aayog based on National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5).
Soon after the report was released, the chief minister promised a huge improvement in the ranks in the next five years.
Reacting to the second-poorest state tag, he said there is a need to realise that Meghalaya faces several challenges and the government had focused on addressing these challenges in the last five years.
Sangma said the government will look into the report in detail and address the factors considered while ranking the states.
He also disclosed that the government will come up with a comprehensive economic policy that will focus on goals and targets for the next five years. According to him, it will be an important game-changer in terms of overall economic development and prosperity of the state.
