Nagaland has 75 per cent ‘crorepati’ MLAs, or 45 out of 60 MLAs elected to the legislative assembly this year have individual wealth worth over Rs 1 crore, a report said here on Sunday.
Post-2013 assembly elections, 61 per cent or 36 out of 59 MLAs were found to be crorepatis.
Of the two MLAs with criminal cases registered against them, one is from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the other from the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP).
According to the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), six MLAs have not disclosed their sources of income. The state also failed to give any woman MLA.
“The average of assets per MLA in the Nagaland 2018 assembly elections is Rs 5.16 crore. In 2013, the average assets of the MLAs analyzed was Rs 3.18 crore,” the report said.
The average assets per MLA for the 27 Naga People’s Front (NPF) MLAs analysed is Rs 4.41 crore, 17 NDPP MLAs have average assets worth Rs 7.52 crore, 12 BJP MLAs have average assets of Rs 3.68 crore and two National People’s Party (NPP) MLAs have average assets worth Rs 1.37 crore.
“20 (74 per cent) out of 27 MLAs from NPF, 13 (77 per cent) out of 17 MLAs from NDPP, 9 (75 per cent) out of 12 MLAs from BJP and 1 MLA each from JD(U), NPP and Independent have declared over Rs 1-crore assets,” said the report.
The top richest MLAs include Neiphiu Rio from the NDPP with assets worth over Rs 36 crore, K. Tokugha Sukhalu also of the same party with over Rs 17-crore assets and Yitachu from the NPF with over Rs 17-crore assets.
Toshi Wungtung from the NDPP with Rs 9 lakh had assets valued lowest.
Speaking of education, 20 MLAs have declared their educational qualification to be between 8th pass and 12th pass, while 39 MLAs have shown educational qualification of graduate or above and one MLA had declared himself as illiterate.
