72 crorepatis in Modi's new council of ministers

With the latest expansion of the Union Council of Ministers, the total number of crorepatis there has risen to 72, while the number of those with declared criminal cases is up at 24, a study said.

In the expansion last week, 19 new ministers were inducted while five were dropped, taking the total strength to 78.

The average asset of the newly-inducted ministers is Rs 8.73 crore, taking the average asset of the entire council of ministers to Rs 12.94 crore, as per the study by Delhi-based think-tank Association for Democratic Reforms.

Among the new ministers, M J Akbar, Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh, has declared the highest total assets of Rs 44.90 crore followed by P P Choudhary (Rs 35.35 crore) and Vijay Goel (Rs 29.97 crore), both Rajya Sabha members from Rajasthan, the report added.

The new ministers with assets over Rs 1 crore also include Ramesh Jigajinagi, Purshottam Khodabhai Rupala, Anupriya Singh Patel, Mahendra Nath, Faggan Singh Kulaste, Rajen Gohain, S S Ahluwalia, Arjun Ram Meghwal, C R Choudhary, Mansukhbhai Laxmanbhai Mandaviya and Krishna Raj.

As per ADR, nine of the total 78 union ministers have declared total assets worth more than Rs 30 crore, including Finance Minister Arun Jaitley (Rs 113 crore), Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal (Rs 108 crore) and Power Minister Goyal Piyush Vedprakash (Rs 95 crore).

Among the newly-inducted ministers, Anil Madhav Dave, Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh and now the environment minister, has declared the lowest asset worth Rs 60.97 lakh.

Total six ministers had declared assets less than Rs 1 crore.

Among newly-inducted cabinet ministers, seven have declared criminal cases against themselves, taking the total number of such ministers in the 78-member council of ministers to 24.

On age of the ministers, the study said three are aged between 31 to 40 years, 44 are between 41 and 60 years, while 31 are between 61 and 80 years.

Now, there are total nine women ministers, the ADR said in its analysis of the self-sworn latest affidavits of all ministers for their Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha elections.

Among all 78 ministers, 14 have declared education qualification of 12th pass or below, while 63 have a qualification of graduation and above.

Image: Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets newly inducted ministers into Union of Council in New Delhi on July 05, 2016. Photograph: PIB