City Pulse

How rich is your corporator? How many loans do they have against their names? As the city gears up for the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike elections on August 22, and as the terms of 198 corporators come to an end, activists Puneeth T and HL Manjunatha filed RTIs to find out the financial assets, monthly income, and debts of corporators for the year 2014-15. And, the results throw up some interesting facts. M Revanna, corporator from Ramamurthy Nagar is the richest corporator with a monthly income of Rs 25,00,000, along with assets worth Rs 199,22,00,000. On the other hand, Dodda Bidarakallu Corporator TA Gayathri has a loan of Rs 27,17,86,956 against her name.  Interestingly, the RTIs also revealed that only 10 BJP and two Congress Coporators revealed their educational qualifications.

Monthly income of Corporators:

The RTIs found massive variation in both the salaries drawn, and overall income (interest from assets) of the corporators. While some earn less than Rs 5,000, many corporators’ income run into lakhs.

Seven corporators from BJP,  14 from Congress, two from JD (s) and two independent corporators earn less than Rs 10,000 with Jayanagar Corporator  Gangambika, earning Rs 3,333. On the other hand, 11 BJP, four Congress, and four JD(S) corporators earn less than Rs 20,000 but more than Rs 10,000. About 14 BJP, nine Congress and one JD (S) Corporator earn more than Rs 50,000 and less than Rs 1 lakh.  M Revanna with monthly income of Rs  25,00,000 is the richest corporator.

Loans taken by corporators: 

Barring 30 BJP, 27 Congress, four JD (S) and three independent corporators, all other corporators have loans against their names.  About 19 BJP corporators have loans less than Rs 10,00,000 followed by five Congress, two JD (S), and one independent corporator. 

On the other hand, seven BJP, followed by four Congress, and one independent corporator have loans more than Rs 50 lakhs against their names. Interestingly, 19 BJP, 11 Congress, three JD (S) and one independent corporator have loans more than Rs 1 crore. 

Assets declared: 

The RTI also points out to partywise analysis of corporators’ assets. BJP with corporate strength of 111 had a total declaration of Rs 724,16,27,806. Congress with 65 corporators has total assets of Rs 289,04,18,855. JD(S) with 15 corporators, and other parties with seven corporators have declared assets of Rs 81,75,60,440 and Rs 12,12,25,323, respectively. 

BJP has 47 corporators whose assets are valued between Rs 1 crore and Rs 5 crore, while 13 have assets worth more than Rs 10 crore.  On other hand, Congress’s 10 and JD(s) four corporators have assets valued to be above Rs 10 crore.    

Other interesting facts also emerged during data analysis of the RTIs filed. The total amount of gold possessed by all corporators came up to be 59 kgs and 25 gm. One out of five corporators possessed an Innova, that is a total 43 Innova cars. Other luxury cars owned by corporators, and declared in their nomination papers include, Benz, Jaguar, Audi, BMW, etc.