Express news service: Tue Nov 23 2010,
New Delhi : Before he became Telecom Minister in UPA-II, DMK MP A Raja had cash and assets worth Rs 71 lakh, which included shares and fixed deposits worth Rs 8.52 lakh. Less than a year into his second term as Union Minister, his investment in shares and fixed deposits had jumped by nearly 170 per cent, to over Rs 23 lakh.
In his affidavit to the Election Commission while filing his nomination from the Nilgiris (reserved) constituency in Tamil Nadu, Raja, who was recently forced to resign from the Cabinet due to his alleged role in the 2G spectrum scam, had disclosed having paid tax of Rs 1.83 lakh on his income for the year 2008-09.
However, his annual property and income returns provided by the Prime Minister’s Office in response to an RTI application filed by Subhash C Agrawal shows that while in 2008-09, Raja invested Rs 8.52 lakh in shares and his wife Rs 3.04 lakh, for the year ending March 31, 2010, their investments had shot up. His wife’s investments also showed an increase of Rs 6 lakh.
While assets of all ministers rose in the last one year, Defence Minister A K Antony was the odd man out, with his assets showing a dip the cash in his two bank accounts dwindled from Rs 1.8 lakh to a little over Rs 84,000.
The information was revealed after much dilly-dallying by the PMO, which earlier refused to part with details of ministers’ assets on the plea that these were held by the PM under a “fiduciary relationship” and were exempted from disclosure under the RTI.
The CIC asked the PMO to take permission of both Houses of Parliament before making the information public, and Parliament cleared the same saying no permission was required for disclosure.
According to information provided to Agrawal, Raja had bought shares of 19 companies, including many PSUs, IT companies and airlines.
Among the richest ministers in UPA II is Gwalior MP and Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia, whose assets showed an increase from Rs 22.7 crore in 2009 to Rs 24 crore this year.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s movable and immovable properties showed a marginal increase from Rs 1 crore to Rs 1.10 crore. The other crorepatis include Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and HRD Minister Kapil Sibal.
The assets of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram also showed a marginal growth, up from Rs 10.3 crore to Rs 10.4 crore this year. He also took an advance of Rs 3.5 lakh.
Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, whose declared assets were just Rs 6.7 Lakh last year, showed some growth in her bank balance, with properties and cash of about Rs 10 lakh.
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