UP govt has 20 ministers with criminal cases: ADR

NEW DELHI: The new Uttar Pradesh government has 20 ministers with criminal cases against them, while Punjab has two, says a report.

As for wealth, 35 UP ministers are ‘crorepatis’, while Punjab has nine.

UP Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 44 out of 47 ministers from the state assembly. Three ministers namely Dinesh Sharma, Swatantra Dev Singh and Mohsin Raza have not been analysed due to unavailability of data. Dinesh Sharma is a mayor whereas the other two are not currently members of either any house, UP state assembly or legislative council.

“Out of the 44 ministers, 35 (80 per cent) are crorepatis. The average assets of 44 ministers is Rs 5.34 crore,” Delhi-based ADR said in a report released on Tuesday.

Besides, it said, 20 (45 per cent) ministers have declared criminal cases against them.

It listed the charges against them that included robbery, theft, forgery and voluntarily causing hurt.

The minister with the highest declared total assets is Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi from Allahabad South constituency with assets worth Rs 57.11 crore, it said. Chief Minister Adityanath has total assets worth over Rs 71 lakh, while deputy CM Keshav Prasad has total assets of over Rs 9 crore, the report added.

A total of 28 ministers have declared liabilities out of which the minister with the highest liabilities is Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi (Rs 26.02 crore).

On education details, it said, a total of seven (16 per cent) ministers have declared their qualification to be between 10th and 12th pass, while 37 (84 pc) are graduates or have higher degrees.