New Delhi: According to a recent study, out of the 609 ministers analysed from State Assemblies, about 160 ministers have studied up to class XII or below and 76 per cent of them are crorepatis with average assets of Rs 8.59 crore, while 34 per cent of ministers from state assemblies have declared criminal cases against them.
Among the ministers in states with the highest assets is Ponguru Narayana of the Telugu Desam Party with Rs 496 crore.
There are nine ministers who have studied up to class V or lower. A total of 59 ministers have cleared class X while 77 have passed class XII.
Only 157 ministers have attended colleges and are graduates.
The list also comprises those ministers who have postgraduate (125) and doctorate (26) degrees.
The analysis by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said 462 (76%) of them are crorepatis. While there is no dearth of millionaire ministers in the states, Andhra Pradesh is at the top (20 ministers) with average assets of Rs 45.49 crore, followed by Karnataka (31 ministers) at Rs 36.96 crore and Arunachal Pradesh (7 ministers) at Rs 32.62 crore.
On the other hand, north-eastern state Tripura (12 ministers) is at the bottom with average assets of Rs 31.67 lakh, with Kerala (19 ministers) above it at Rs 78.72 lakh and then Manipur (11 ministers) at Rs 83.92 lakh.
Among the ministers with the highest assets is Ponguru Narayana of the Telugu Desam Party with Rs 496 crore, followed by DK Shivakumar of the Congress at Rs 251 crore, says the ADR report.
Three state assemblies — Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab and Puducherry — have the distinction of 100 per cent crorepati ministers.
They are followed by 97 per cent ministers of Karnataka and 92 per cent ministers from Rajasthan, Goa, Meghalaya and Chhattisgarh who also have declared assets valued at Rs 1 crore and above.
The study said 113 (19%) ministers have declared serious criminal cases including of murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, crimes against women, etc.
The states with the highest percentage of ministers with serious criminal cases include nine from Jharkhand, four from Delhi, nine from Telangana, 18 from Maharashtra, 11 from Bihar and two from Uttarakhand.
The study revealed a dearth of female ministers, as out of the 609 examines, just 51 are women.
The highest number of female ministers is from Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, with five each.
State cabinets of Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Punjab and Telangana have no female ministers.
As far as age goes, a majority of them are between 50 and 60 years old and a few are in the range of 80 to 90 years.
A total of 226 ministers are in the 50-60 age group, 144 are between 60 and 70 years of age, 23 are between 70-80 years and five are more than80 years old.
A total of 609 ministers out of 620 have been analysed from 29 state assemblies and two Union Territories.
Many of these may get Doctorates in their own Unversities soon.
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