NH 47 Kamalnath

Worth of our ministers going by their declared assets, the PM’s men are getting richer & richer. Here's a look at some of them and their riches.
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 The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Tuesday declared the updated assets and worth of the members of the Union council of ministers as in 2012.

The figures show that our ministers are only getting richer by the year. Leading the richie rich pack whose details were available till Tuesday night, is DMK’s MK Alagiri, the Union minister of chemicals and fertilizers, who is worth over Rs 37 crore along with the assets of his wife, Kanthi. Alagiri owns a Range Rover worth Rs 35 lakh and a Honda City, while his wife owns a BMW worth Rs 75 lakh. The couple, with their assets taken together, have seen their worth jump by almost 17 per cent from 2011.

The most meteoric rise — 76 per cent increase — in worth from last year has, however, been of parliamentary affairs minister Rajeev Shukla along with his wife who heads a news channel. The couple was worth around Rs 16.56 crore last year but the present declaration shows they are now worth nearly Rs 29.25 crore. Shukla’s wife alone is worth Rs 23.34 crore, including the value of shares she holds in her company. Shukla’s own assets have grown from Rs 1.8 crore in 2011 to Rs 5.9 crore in 2012 — that includes Rs 1.7 crore in fixed deposits. Shukla, however, still drives around in a 2003 model Hyundai Ascent, which is the only vehicle the family owns.

Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, meanwhile, has no vehicle in his or his family’s name, according to his latest declaration, though his total worth along with his wife’s has grown by 33 per cent from last year to over Rs 16 crore. The Pawar couple has parked Rs 2.5 crore in fixed deposits in banks and owns a flat in Dwarka Sector 3 in Delhi, which they claim is worth nearly Rs 1.15 crore.

Finance minister P. Chidambaram and his wife have also seen their worth grow by nearly 26 per cent to nearly ` 30 crore this year.

Chidambaram’s successor in the home ministry, Sushil Kumar Shinde, has emerged as another rich minister with his family’s assets worth Rs 14.18 crore — his favourite investment seems to be in flats. He has one in Pune worth Rs2.14 crore and another in Bandra worth Rs 1.98 crore. But Shinde does not own a car. The only vehicle he mentioned is a 2003- model Mitsubishi Tractor worth Rs 1.89 lakh.

But some big guns from last year have intriguingly not declared their assets so far. Among them are Kamal Nath who was worth Rs 260 crore and Praful Patel who was worth Rs 101 crore in 2011.

Assets of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pranab Mukherjee have not been declared for 2012 yet.
By Aman Sharma 5 Sept 2012