IANS

The assets of at least three federal ministers have increased by more than 10mn rupees since assuming office, the National Election Watch and Association of Democratic Reforms said in a joint statement yesterday.

“Among the ministers who contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the highest increase in assets in five months has been shown by Minister of Railways D V Sadananda Gowda. His assets have shown an increase of Rs10.46 crore (from Rs9.88 crore as declared in Lok Sabha 2014 election to Rs20.35 crore in the 2014 declarations of the Union Council of Ministers to the PMO),” the statement said.

Gowda is followed by Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Radhakrishnan P with an increase of Rs2.98 crore and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley with a jump of Rs1.01 crore.

Further, 41 ministers or 91% of the council of ministers are ‘crorepatis’ based on their declarations to the Prime Minister’s Office.

The highest assets have been declared by Jaitley at Rs114.03 crore, followed by Harsimrat Kaur Badal (Rs108.31 crore) and Piyush Goyal (Rs94.66 crore).

The average value of ministers’ assets according to their declarations on the PMO website is Rs14.32 crore.

ADR and NEW had in their analysis considered the election affidavits of union ministers for the 2014 Lok Sabha election and compared it with their asset declarations on the PMO’s website on October 10, for the comparison in terms of increase or decrease in wealth.

The statement said that 16 ministers have shown a decrease in assets.

“The highest decrease has been shown by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj who showed a decrease of Rs3.89 crore (from Rs17.55 crore declared in the 2014 Lok Sabha election). She is followed by Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region V K Singh who declared a decrease of Rs.3.13 crore (from 4.11 crore declared in the 2014 Lok Sabha election). He is followed by Health Minister Harsh Vardhan who declared a decrease of Rs1.28 crore,” the statement said.

The statement added that the cause of changes in assets for many ministers was mainly the lack of any standardised format for asset declarations.

 

Related Story