via (http://empoweringindia.org)
• Did you know that the former Chief Minister of Karnataka, declared financial assets worth Rupees 4 crore in the 2004 state elections whereas in the affidavit filed for 2008 Karnataka assembly elections to the election commission, he disclosed Rupees 40 crore?
• The present Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Sushri Mayawati, declared assets worth over Rupeess 50 crore in 2007, when she contested for a seat in the UP legislative council, but when she had contested the election for the Lok Sabha in 2004, she had declared assets worth Rupees 5 crore.
• In the 2004 general election, about 1,000 candidates out of over 5,000 had declared
assets of over Rupees 1 crore. But only 136 of these crorepatis actually made it to
Parliament. There are over 800 MLAs around the country with declared assets over one crore.
Sites for getting more information on election/candidates etc.
http://www.adrindia.org/home/index.asp
http://www.indiaelectionwatch.org/disclosures.htm
(updated – 16 Mar 2009) Attendence record of MPs (India) – http://ibnlive.in.com/politics/stats/mp_attendance_2004.php
Latter provides excel sheets about candidates and their disclosures.
Electoral roll challenges – http://indiatogether.org/2008/mar/gov-rolls.htm You will see this but try to remember enumeration/verification is done by people who are working in less than perfect conditions (no consistent house numbering scheme, no proper road numbers , non availability of to scale actual recent maps – more of a challenge in urban areas).
Kind of challenges
– name misspelled in different languages
– name repeated with different house #
– people from same house placed in different section thus having to go to different polling booth
– invalid entries
One can find these challenges across the nation and these can be minimized by preventing bad data entry, forcing citizens to be more proactive in updating their data as they move, adding easier access to the information and simpler verification at the local level and way to push this feedback into the system(something which janagraaha tries to do with sabhas etc).
Some place else 