Almost 99% of ministers in third Modi govt are crorepatis: Report

28 of the 71 ministers have criminal cases against them, according to the Association for Democratic Reforms

In the new Council of Ministers in the third term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, there is only one person with assets worth less than Rs 1 crore, according to an analysis released by the Association for Democratic Reforms on Tuesday.

Jitan Ram Manjhi of the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) possesses assets worth Rs 30 lakh, ADR said. The former chief minister of Bihar was appointed the Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises on Tuesday.

ADR's analysis, based on 71 ministers except George Kurien, said that six ministers in the new council of ministers have assets worth more than Rs 100 crore. Kurein was not analysed as he is not currently a member of either house and he has not contested the Lok Sabha Election.

The average assets of the 71 ministers is Rs 107.94 crore.

Telugu Desam Party's Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani has the highest declared assets: worth Rs 5,705 crore. He is the Minister of State for Rural Development and Communications.

Pemmasani is followed by Bharatiya Janata Party's Jyotiraditya Scindia (assets worth Rs 424 crore) and Janata Dal (Secular)'s HD Kumaraswamy (Rs 217 crore). Scindia, who was the Minister of Civil Aviation in the last government, is the new Minister of Communications. Kumaraswamy has been appointed the Minister of Heavy Industries and Minister of Steel.  

Others who have declared total assets worth more than Rs 100 crore are Ashwini Vaishnaw (Railways and Electronics and Information Technology, and Information and Broadcasting Minister); Rao Inderjit Singh (Minister of State (Independent Charge) in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Planning, and Minister of State in the Ministry of Culture) and Piyush Goyal (Minister of Commerce and Industry). Vaishnaw and Goyal are cabinet ministers.

ADR said that out of the 71 ministers, 28 (39 per cent) have declared criminal cases against them. As many as 19 (27 per cent) have declared serious criminal cases including those related to attempts to murder, kidnapping and crimes against women.

Out of the 71 ministers, only 7 (around 10 per cent) are women ministers.

ADR said that 11 ministers (15 per cent) have declared that they have studied Class 12. As many as 57 (80 per cent) have declared having an academic qualification of graduate or above. Three ministers are diploma holders.

Modi and his council of ministers were sworn in on Sunday and portfolios were declared the next evening.

At least a dozen Cabinet ministers have retained their portfolios: Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman, Nitin Gadkari and S Jaishankar.

Some new ministers include former Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar (Housing and Urban Affairs, and Power), former Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, and Rural Development), and JP Nadda (Health and Family Welfare, and Chemicals and Fertilizers).

Most of the ministers took charge of their ministries on Tuesday morning.