In 2004 Karnataka's former CM H D Kumara Swamy was worth Rs. 3 crores. Four
years of hectic politicking he is now worth Rs.39 crores.
No privilege information this, nor even a reply to any RTI application. This
is available on the click of a mouse on a site that aims with empowering
the voters with information - on politicians , their criminal records, their
property details & a detailed analysis of past elections.
Financially supported by the German agency of international co-operation -
Fedrich Naumann Stiftung a website
http://www.empoweringindia.org
offers information on 45,000+ politicians from every state & constituency in
the country.
The site is administered by New Delhi based think tank Liberty Institute.
It is distinctly different from the election commission's website.
"The aim of the website is to help people with information on one platter
which is accessible easily. Features like comparing a piece of information
with different types of data such as property & criminal records of one or
more candidates is something very difficult to do, if one is provided with
all the information separately," said former chief election commissioner J M
Lyngdoh.
The software took four years to develop. "Digitising such a volume of data
was a herculean task. The success depends on whether we could answer
customised queries from the users." said Barun Mitra, director, Liberty
Institute. The site is yet to have information on politicians from all
states, but it is being uploaded in the order of states going to polls
first.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
