Assam activist Gogoi ‘nails’ ministers thru RTI

Peasant leader and right to information (RTI) activist Akhil Gogoi, who is spearheading an anti-corruption campaign in Assam, Sunday appealed to the people of the state to not be fooled by the lures of some "corrupt politicians" in the run-up to the assembly elections.

He said he will move the Election Commission with details of property owned by ministers and their families ahead of the forthcoming Assembly elections. He said the recent asset lists made public by some of the ministers revealed only a small portion of their assets, scattered across different parts of the state.

"Many corrupt politicians are in the fray. They will try to influence people with their black money. We request people not to be fooled by them," the general secretary of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity (KMSS) told newspersons in Guwahati.

''Using the RTI Act, I have gathered details of both moveable and immovable properties owned by the ministers and their families in different parts of the state and the assets lists declared recently included only a small portion of these,'' Gogoi said.

Gogoi started off with the state health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who seems to be his bete noire, and his wife, and charged them with owning property not mentioned in his assets list.

He said RTI applications filed by the organisation revealed that Sarma and his wife, Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, owned land at Kaziranga, North Guwahati and Khanapara, about which there was no mention in the assets list.