In avoiding disclosing true value of assets,state leaders follow national counterparts

The list includes serving and former chief ministers,former union ministers,an assortment of state party leaders and even one former prime minister.

In 2009,Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik declared that he owned a 25 per cent share in the house at 3,Aurangzeb Road,in the heart of Lutyens’ Delhi and said the value was Rs 2.3 crore. But no details were given of the size of the house or how the value was arrived at. Similarly,he has claimed his Naveen Niwas in Bhubaneswar was worth Rs 2.51 crore but again not mentioned its size.

Samajwadi Party President Mulayam Singh Yadav declared in 2009 that his house in Vishwas Khand,Gomti Nagar,Lucknow,was worth Rs 10.16 lakh but did not mention its size. In 2004,he declared he owned 14.02 acres of farm land in his home district of Etawah and said it was worth Rs 26.57 lakh. In 2009,the size of the farm grew to 16.27 acres but the value remained the same. His house in Civil Lines,Etawah,was valued at Rs 32.87 lakh in 2004 and Rs 33.04 lakh in 2009 but its size was not mentioned.

AIADMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa declared in 2011 she owned a building in Chennai’s Poes Garden area whose built-up area measured about 1.5 grounds (3,600 sq ft) and that it was worth Rs 3.02 crore. But market experts said it would have been worth Rs 5 crore at least. Her house in the same area,she declared,measured about 10 grounds (24,000 sq ft) and its approximate current value as Rs 20.16 crore. But market estimates put this at around Rs 35 crore.

Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda,who heads Janata Dal (Secular),declared in 2009 that he owned a building in the South Bangalore area of Padmanabhnagar and said it was worth Rs 80 lakh but gave no details of its size.

TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu declared in 2009 that his 600 sq yd house in the prime Banjara Hills area of Hyderabad was worth Rs 3.3 crore “as per valuation report”. But it should have been around Rs 4.85 crore according to market estimates of the time.

In 2004,Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief K Chandrashekar Rao declared he owned a 598 sq yd house in the same Banjara Hills area and said it was worth Rs 70 lakh. In 2009,he declared the market value of the house was Rs 1.5 crore.

However,market estimates of the time put the worth of Rao’s house at around Rs 4.84 crore. Rao also declared in 2009 that he bought 584 sq yd of land and spent Rs 22 lakh on it but did not mention its location or market value. He also declared he owned a house in Karimnagar worth Rs 24 lakh but did not mention its size.

Janta Dal (United) president Sharad Yadav declared in 2009 that the “cost incurred” on his 1,000 sq ft flat in Nav Sansad Vihar in Dwaraka,Delhi,was Rs 14 lakh. But he did not mention the market value of the house. Five years earlier,he had declared this flat to be worth Rs 12 lakh. According to market estimates for 2009,this house was worth at least Rs 55 lakh.

Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president Ram Vilas Paswan declared in 2004 that his wife’s 500 sq yd plot in Mehrauli was worth Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 5 lakh in 2010. Market experts,however,said this plot would have been worth at least Rs 1.35 crore in 2010. His wife also owns a petrol pump in Delhi’s Vasant Kunj area but its location and value are not mentioned.

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s Shibu Soren declared in 2009 that he owned one plot in Vasundhara Colony of Ghaziabad measuring 180 sq m and worth Rs 3.75 lakh and another as just in Ghaziabad measuring 260 sq m and worth Rs 5.98 lakh. While the true value of the Vasundhara plot would have been Rs 90 lakh,that of the other plot could not be estimated as the exact location was not mentioned.

Former Lok Sabha speaker P A Sangma declared in 2008 that he owned a plot in Sector 56 of Gurgaon but he neither mentioned its size nor its value.

Badruddin Ajmal,the chief of Assam’s AIUDF,declared in 2009 that his 1,031 sq m land in Deoband in western UP,was worth Rs 6.55 lakh. But local property experts said it would have been worth at least Rs 30 lakh. He also declared that his 1,500 sq yd land in Khandala,Maharashtra,was worth Rs 22.28 lakh. Market experts said this was grossly undervalued as the going rate then was Rs 5,000 per sq yd,which would take the value to Rs 75 lakh. He also declared that he owned an apartment in Gurgaon’s Celebrity Home worth Rs 25 lakh but did not give details of its size.

In 2004,Kuldeep Bishnoi of the Haryana Janhit Congress declared that his land in Mohabatpur,Hissar,was worth Rs 17 lakh and the same land was worth Rs 18 lakh five years later. But the worth of another plot in Bir Hissar jumped from Rs 3.37 lakh in 2004 to Rs 15 lakh in 2009.

J&K Panthers Party chief Bhim Singh declared in 2009 that the value of his 19 Kanal land in Udhampur,J&K,was “not estimated”.