In a path breaking development in the history of Indian democracy, the top brass of the Indian Government have declared assets and liabilities and made it public through Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) website http://pmindia.nic.in/ . Now the citizens of India can know the properties and liabilities of their rulers through http://pmindia.nic.in/rti.htm . Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh and his 77 Cabinet Ministers declared their movable and immovable assets on Saturday, 4th September 2011. The list of ministers has been posted on the website under ‘Right to Information’ link. There were many surprises in the list as the most prominent politicians and industrialist turned politicians have announced their assets to the public for the first time in their careers.
According to the list available on PMO website, Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath is the richest minister in the central cabinet and on top with assets worth Rs 263 crore. Low profile Defence Minister AK Antony is the poorest minister with just about Rs. 30 Lakh properties. Other notable ministers in the list who declared their assets are Gulam Nabi Azad, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, S Jaipal Reddy, Ambika Soni, Praful Patel, Vayalar Ravi, Pawan K Bansal, MK Alagiri, Jairam Ramesh, Anand Sharma, GK Vasan, Mallikarjun Kharge etc. Following are some highlights of the assets declared by the Council of Ministers of Govt of India:
1) First among the equals, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assets worth Rs 5 crore. He has property worth Rs 1.8 crore along with Rs 90 lakh valuable house in Chandigarh apart from a Rs 88.67 lakh worth apartment in Vasant Kunj in Delhi. He also has a Maruti 800 car apart from conventional investments like bak deposits and savings.
2) Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has properties worth Rs 1.8 crore which includes two flats, a Ford Ikon car and a land and his wife’s collective assets worth Rs 3 crore.
3) Here come Home Minister P Chidambaram’s assets details. He has personal assets worth Rs 11.14 crore which includes shares in three companies. His wife Nalini Chidambaram’s assets are declared to Rs 12.8 crore. He also has coffee estate in Kodagu, a Skoda car, a Volkswagen car, a Ford Fiesta car apart from a memorable cycle worth Rs 1,239.
4) Defence Minister AK Antony is the poorest minister in the Indian cabinet. His total assets are just worth Rs 39.15. Out of these his wife’s assets are worth Rs 30 lakh and the remaining includes his own saving fund deposits. His wife has a Wagon R car in Kerala.
5) M Veerappa Moily, former Law Minister and present Corporate Affairs Minister have properties worth over Rs 13.33 lakh.
6) Agriculture Minister and ICC president Sharad Pawar has just Rs 12 crore worth assets which includes deposits and shares in companies.
7) Telecom Minister Kabil Sibal has immovable assets worth Rs.16.25 crore apart from bank deposits for 65 lakh and investments in shares to amount 40 lakh and some jewellery.
8) Former textiles minister and accused in 2G Spectrum Scam, Dayanidhi Maran has assets worth Rs 2.94 crore. He and his family have shares in Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), Reliance Communications, RNRL and DK Enterprises.
9) Foreign Minister and former chief minister of Karnataka, SM Krishna has properties worth 2.34 lakh in the form of immovable assets, movable assets worth 4.81 lakh, investments worth 3 lakh and savings to amount 12 lakh.
10) Power Minister and former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Sushil Kumar Shinde declared assets worth Rs 7.75 crore and also announced his wife’s properties worth Rs 4.5 crore. Shinde owns a house and farm house in Solapur apart from flats in Bandra in Mumbai and Munirka Vihar in New Delhi.
Assets of five ministers are not available on the PMO website. These ministers are Union Science and Technology Minister and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Minister of Women and Child Development Krishna Tirath, Minister of State for Home Jitendra Singh, Environment and Forests Minister Jayanthi Natarajan,and Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting S Jagathrakshakan.