While the average assets of the 17 ministers sworn-in Monday stood at Rs 32.7 crore, Balvantsinh Rajput, Cabinet Minister for Industries and MSMEs, is the richest with declared assets worth Rs 372 crore.
While 16 of the 17 members in the new Council of Ministers in Gujarat are crorepatis, more than 35 per cent of them have not studied beyond Class 12, states a report released by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) Tuesday.
While the average assets of the 17 ministers sworn-in Monday stood at Rs 32.7 crore, Balvantsinh Rajput, Cabinet Minister for Industries and MSMEs, is the richest with declared assets worth Rs 372 crore. Rajput is a graduate from Barkat District University in Madhya Pradesh.
The minister with the lowest assets (Rs 92.85 lakh) is Bachubhai Khabad. Handling the portfolio of MoS Agriculture and Panchayats, Khabad has studied only up to Class 10 and is among the six ministers who have not studied beyond Class 12.
Similarly, Bhikhu Parmar—the minister for food and civil supplies—and Mulu Bera, the Cabinet Minister for Tourism, Environment, Forests and Climate Change, have also studied only till Class 10. Cooperation and Salt Industries minister Jagdish Vishwakarma and Minister for water resources and water supply, Mukesh Patel, also have not studied beyond Class 10.
Harsh Sanghavi who has studied till Class 8 is the minister with the least educational qualification. Sanghavi, the Minister of State for Home, has assets valued at Rs 17 crore.
About 47 percent of the ministers in the new council of ministers in Gujarat are graduates. Nearly 24 per cent of the ministers also have declared criminal cases against them.