Source: 
Author: 
Date: 
08.07.2016
City: 
New Delhi

Out of the 78 Union Ministers in the Narendra Modi-led Cabinet, 72 are crorepatis, with the average assets of the Council of Ministers is Rs. 12.94 crore, says an analysis of self-sworn affidavits by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR).

Among the newly-inducted 19 Ministers, the richest is journalist-turned-politician MJ Akbar, Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh, who has declared the highest total assets of Rs. 44.90 crore, followed by PP Choudhary from Pali constituency, Rajasthan, with assets worth Rs. 35.35 crore and Vijay Goel, Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan, with total assets of Rs. 29.97 crore. The average assets of the newly inducted Ministers are Rs. 8.73 crore.

Overall, the three richest Ministers are -- Finance Minister Arun Jaitley (BJP), with declared assets of Rs.113 crore, followed by Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal (Shiromani Akali Dal) with Rs. 108 crore and Power, Coal & Mines Minister Piyush Goyal (BJP) with Rs. 95 crore.

The three Ministers with the lowest assets are Sadhavi Niranjan Jyoti with Rs. 37 lakh, Anil Madhav Dave, with Rs. 60 lakh and Ajay Tamta Rs. 63 lakh.

Education

As far as educational qualifications are concerned, out of the 78 Ministers, 63 have declared themselves as graduates and above (of which 24 are professional graduates, 20 graduates, 15 graduates, 4 doctorates, the rest ‘others’), while 14 are 12th pass and below.

ADR said among newly inducted 19 Ministers, seven have declared criminal cases against themselves, with three Ministers having declared serious criminal charges.

Criminal cases

Of the 78 Ministers analysed, 24 (31 per cent) Ministers have declared criminal cases against themselves, with 14 (18 per cent) having declared serious criminal cases including cases related to attempt to murder, communal disharmony, electoral violations etc.

The analysis also revealed that among the newly elected Ministers, Ramesh Jigajinagi of Bijapur constituency in Karnataka had declared two cases related to bribery (IPC Section-171E).

(This article was published on July 8, 2016)
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