An old Maruti for Dr Singh!

Guwahati, May 14 (UNI) Do you know what the Prime Minister of India drives for himself? He may be driven around in a BMW as a Prime Minister. But he owns an old 1996 model Maruti 800 car now worth just Rs 40,000. He does not have any land except a two-storied house in Chandigarh and an apartment in Vasant Kunj, New Delhi.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh furnished all financial and property details of his and his wife while filing the nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha election from Asom.

According to the affidavit, he has cash worth Rs 10,000 and another Rs 18 lakh in four different savings accounts. He has government debentures, term deposits and bonds worth around Rs 2.22 crores besides postal savings of another Rs 5.35 lakh.

Dr Singh is contesting for the fourth term as Rajya Sabha member from Asom and the Congress is making sure that no controversy is attached with his election. To remove all elements of controversy, the party decided to put all its votes for Dr Singh leaving the second preference vote blank.

The Congress has 60 seats and Dr Singh needs just 43. But as a respect to the Prime Minister, Congress MLAs in Asom have been asked to leave the space of the second preference blank.

Dr Singh also has a bank account in Guwahati where he has around Rs 18,000 from which he regularly pays his monthly rental to the house he rented 15 years ago.

He submitted that he had constructed the first floor of the Chandigarh house in 1987 spending around Rs 8 lakh and another floor was added ten years later spending an almost identical sum.

Further in 1993 he also bought an apartment in Vasant Kunj and paid Rs 30,000 to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to transfer the title in his name. He also spent Rs 50,000 to bring in furnitures to the house.

Besides that he has no other agricultural land. Equally impressive was his wife's disclosures. Mrs Gursharan Kaur has Rs 25,000 in cash and in the bank Rs 3.65 lakh. She does not own any vehicle, nor any property and has gold ornament worth Rs 1,35,000.

This, when even the MLAs have many times more property and money than the Prime Minister's family.

UNI