GUWAHATI — Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi on
Thursday took a dig at Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for being
ranked as one of the richest chief ministers in the country.
Sarma promised that Assam would be in the top five states in
India in terms of development, but on the other hand he is on the verge of
becoming one of the top five richest chief ministers, said Gogoi.
The rank of the richest chief ministers was given in a
report released by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Monday.
"What was promised by the BJP Chief Minister Himanta
Biswa Sarma that Assam will be in the top 5 states in India in terms of
development. Instead Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma himself is on the verge
of becoming the one of the top 5 richest Chief Ministers in India," Gogoi
wrote on 'X'.
The Congress deputy leader in Lok Sabha said while four NDA
chief ministers from northeast India are in the top 10 richest chief ministers
list shared by the Association of Democratic Reforms (@adrspeaks), their states
lag behind in Human Development Index rankings.
"BJP Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is ranked 7th
richest, while Assam is ranked 31st on the UNDP HDI index. Looking at the sharp
contrast between personal wealth and state development, it is clear that
"Vikas" is only for BJP. Is this the 'development' promised by the
double engine BJP sarkar ?" Gogoi asked.
According to the ADR report, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N
Chandrababu Naidu is the richest chief minister in India with assets worth over
INR 931 crore, while West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee is the poorest with just INR
15 lakh.
The ADR report said Sarma has assets worth about INR 17
crore and ranked 9th among the richest chief ministers.
The report said the average asset per chief minister from
the state assemblies and union territories is INR 52.59 crore.
While India's per capita net national income or NNI was
approximately INR 1,85,854 for 2023-2024, the average self-income of a chief
minister is INR 13,64,310, around 7.3 times the average per capita income of
India.
The total assets of 31 chief ministers are worth INR 1,630
crores.
Arunachal Pradesh's Pema Khandu is the second richest chief
minister with total assets worth over INR 332 crores, Karnataka's Siddaramaiah
is the third on the list with assets worth more than INR 51 crore.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, with assets
worth INR 55 lakh, is the second poorest in the list and Pinarayi Vijayan is
third with INR 1.18 crore.
Khandu also has the highest liabilities to the tune of INR
180 crore.
Siddaramaiah has liabilities worth IRN 23 crore and Naidu
more than INR 10 crore, the report said.
