Details of assets and liabilities : We’re ready to comply with Lokayukta notice: Gupta

New Delhi: The Delhi BJP MLAs will file details of their assets and liabilities as asked in a notice by Lokayukta, Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta said on Friday, and attacked the ruling AAP for resisting similar disclosure by its legislators.

He said that though a complaint was made only against AAP MLAs but the Lokayukta issued notice to BJP MLAs, which reflected its “impartiality”, and asserted that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal should have set an example by filing the details himself. 

“The BJP MLAs unanimously decided in a meeting in Vidhan Sabha that all four of them will comply with the notice of Lokayukta to file details of assets and liabilities,” Gupta said in a press conference. The party has four MLAs in a 70-member house where the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) enjoys a brute majority. 

In a notice, the office of Lokayukta had asked the ruling AAP legislators, Kejriwal, to give their replies on a complaint alleging that they are not furnishing details of their assets and liabilities before the competent authority. 

“The Aam Aadmi Party, which came to power four years back on the plank of honesty and transparency in public life is now surprisingly opposing the notice issued by Lokayukta," Gupta said. 

Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel had earlier said that there was no law under which it was compulsory for the MLAs to furnish these details. 
“There is no such law under which it is compulsory for MLAs to give details of their assets and liability. It (proposed legislation) is still under consideration of the Union Law Ministry. There is no such provision in the law,” Goel had said. 

Gupta, however, said that the notice by the Lokayukta was a step in the direction of transparency in public life. “When Parliamentarians can submit details of their assets and liabilities, there is no reason why Delhi MLAs cannot do so,” the BJP leader said. 

The issue was raised by an advocate and RTI activist Vivek Garg, who on January 9, filed a complaint with the office of Lokayukta, alleging that details of assets and liabilities were not being filed by the AAP MLAs for three consecutive financial years.