90% Of Crorepati Zilla Parishad Members In Odisha Belong To BJD

Bhubaneswar: At least 95 newly elected zilla parishad members in Odisha are crorepatis with 90% of them belonging to BJD, revealed a report by Odisha Election Watch (OEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

The report, based on analysis of the affidavits of 726 of the 851 newly elected ZP members, was released on Tuesday. The ADR shared the data on criminal cases, properties, educational qualification and age of the members.

As per the data, 90 members from BJD, three from BJP and two from Congress have declared to have assets of more than Rs 1 crore. The average assets per zilla parishad member is Rs 56.60 lakh.

Three BJD members, Rebati Nayak, Gitarani Malik and Kunti Pradhan, have declared their assets to be worth Rs 18.6 crore, Rs 17.06 crore and Rs 10.21 crore respectively.

While Rebati, the BJD ZP member from Soro is the richest, Rina Behera from Chilika in Khurda district, also from the BJD, is the poorest with no movable or immovable property to her name.

On the criminal record, the report stated that 82 ZP members, accounting for around 11%, have declared that criminal cases were pending against them. Of them, 65 are facing serious criminal charges including cases related to attempt to murder and crime against women. A total 15 ZP members have cases of attempt to murder against them, while 12 are facing cases related to crime against women.

While 66 ZP members from BJD out of total 661, six of 37 members from BJP and seven out of 22 from Congress have declared criminal cases.

On educational qualification, 451 members declared to have passed between Class V and XII, while 256 (35 pc) completed their graduation. Six ZP members have not declared their educational qualification, while six have declared to be just literate.

The ADR has stated that affidavits of the rest elected ZP candidates could not be analysed as those were not available or uploaded on the website at the time of filing the report.