PM's assets around Rs 10.73 crore, cabinet colleagues richer

September 9, 2012

New Delhi, September 9: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assets worth around Rs 10.73 crore, double that of last year, but a number of his cabinet colleagues are much richer than him.

Among the richer cabinet ministers are Praful Patel with assets of approximately Rs 52 crore and Sharad Pawar with property worth around Rs 22 crore, according to the updated list of assets of the ministers posted on the PMO website.

Defence Minister A K Antony has assets worth Rs 55 lakh, the lowest in the list of the cabinet Ministers. Manmohan Singh has shown residential properties, bank deposits and a Maruti 800 car as his assets.

While the total worth of Singh's two flats- in Chandigarh and Delhi- is Rs 7.27 crore, Singh has bank deposits and investments worth Rs 3.46 crore approximately in various State Bank of India (ASBI) accounts.

He has declared total assets of worth Rs 10,73,88,730.81 (Rs 10.73 crore approximately). Last year, the Prime Minister had declared total assets worth Rs 5.11 crore approximately. The flats owned by him in Chandigarh and Vasant Kunj here were then valued at a total of Rs 1.78 crore and he owned 150.80 gm of gold jewelery worth Rs 2.75 lakh.

Sources in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said though the assets with Singh have remained the same, the valuation has gone up as the assessment has been done by a government- approved valuator.

The depreciated value of his Maruti 800 car has been shown as Rs 21,033. Singh also owns 150.80 grams of gold jewellery but its value has not been shown in his declaration of assets and liabilities.

Singh also owns a bank account in Dispur in Assam where he has a deposit of Rs 6,515.78 only.

HRD Minister Kapil Sibal and his wife Promila have total assets of Rs 45.33 crore, including 8.11 crore of his wife. Of the Rs 37.22 crore assets owned by Sibal, he has at least 12 properties worth Rs 29.35 crore and cash and bank deposits along with shares and debentures worth Rs 2.82 crore, 3 kilograms of jewellery worth Rs 35.33 lakh and loans and advances of Rs 4.63 crore.

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde has a house whose present worth is Rs 50 Lakh, two flats worth Rs 1.99 crore and Rs 1.25 crore, agricultural land worth Rs 19.76 Lakh, guest house worth Rs 8.22 Lakh, land worth Rs 1.11 Crore.

Shinde also owns a Mitsubhishi tractor worth Rs 1.90 lakh He owes a loan of Rs 10 Lakh to one Raj Shroff. His wife Ujjwala Shinde owns a flat worth Rs 2.15 crore, two pieces of land worth Rs 15.38 crore and Rs 84 lakh. She also owes a loan of Rs 27 Lakh to one Raj Shroff.

External Affairs minister S M Krishna has assets worth Rs 1.89 crore, including immovable properties of Rs 31.44 lakh. He owns half share in a residential house at Bangalore and agriculture land in Mandya district and Somanahalli, besides owning a farm house at Somanahalli and a site at Viswapriya Greeneries, Begur. He owns a Sonata and a Lancer car.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram's total assets, including bank accounts and current assets, add upto Rs 11.96 crore approximately. Chidambaram also has assets and liabilities as part of Hindu Undivided Family. His total assets as part of HUF are Rs 94.04 lakh and liabilities worth Rs 75.52 Lakh. Hence, his net assets here add upto Rs 18.52 Lakh approximately.

His wife Nalini has immovable assets worth Rs 4.82 crore and the total assets add upto Rs 17.81 crore approx. Her liabilities are Rs 1.22 lakh which makes her net assets worth about Rs 17.80.

Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers M K Azhagiri has assets worth Rs 9.50 crore. Petroleum Minister S Jaipal Reddy owns a house in Hyderabad and has 43 acres of agricultural land in Andhra Pradesh. His wife S Laxmi owns property in the form of office space in Secunderabad. She also owns jewellery worth Rs 7.5 lakhs and cash savings of over Rs 9 lakh. She also has a Toyota Qualis registered in her name.

Minister of State for Overseas Indian Affairs Vyalar Ravi has a two-bedroom flat in Ernakulam, Kerala, worth Rs 20 lakh. He declared inherited land worth Rs 90 lakh in Ernakulam district. Ravi also declared a Ford car and 900 grams of gold jewellery.

Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh owns six agricultural lands in Durg (Chhattisgarh) and West Uttar Pradesh having a total worth of nearly Rs 13 crore. His land in Chhattisgarh is worth Rs 5.64 crore. Rest of the pieces of land are in Aligarh, Ghaziabad and other nearby areas. He also owns three flats - two in Delhi and one in Gurgaon--worth Rs 3.75 crore.

Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has assets worth over Rs 56 lakhs. More than a half of its share are jointly owned by Ramesh and his mother. Last year, his wife K R Jayashree had assets worth Rs 14,79148 which included bank balance, fixed deposits, jewellery, silverware and shares.

In the year 2011-12, Ramesh's asset rose to over Rs 4.16 crore after his mother declared him a nominee of her bank deposits worth over Rs 3 crore due to the sale of the house of his parents in Bangalore in September 2011.

New And Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah has over Rs 98 lakh deposited in bank accounts and has shares in ancestral properties in Jammu and Kashmir. The value of some of the properties within the share and in possession of Abdullah is over Rs 2.25 crore. Abdullah also earned over Rs 26 lakhs from the sale of family land in Srinagar.

Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahay and his wife Rekha Sahay have declared assets worth Rs 70.74 lakh and Rs 1.24 crore, respectively. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has total assets worth Rs 6.65 crore, including Rs 95.15 lakh of his wife Madhu.

While Bansal has cash and bank deposits worth Rs 62.4 lakh, he owns a share in agricultural land in Mehrauli, Delhi worth Rs five lakh and half-share in a two kanal house in Chandigarh valued at Rs five crore. He also owns a Maruti Esteem car and jewellery worth Rs two lakh.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni has declared a flat in Delhi valued at nearly Rs 3.5 crore in addition to jewellery worth Rs 16 lakh and silver utensils worth over Rs 11 lakh in addition to an Optra car. She has also mentioned a farmhouse owned by her husband in Gurgaon.

Railway Minister Mukul Roy has shown Rs 6 lakh as total income in the Income Tax return and Rs 5.08 lakh in his wife Krishna's name. He has declared Rs 20.07 lakh in his name and Rs 14.97 lakh in his wife's name as total movable assets for the last fiscal.

Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has total assets of Rs 68.59 lakh, including land in Maharashtra worth Rs 5.5 lakh and the remaining in cash and bank balances. His wife Shameed Azad owns a house and land in Srinagar worth Rs 55 lakh besides a residential flat in Delhi. She has bank deposits and jewellery worth Rs 2.62 crore.

The net worth of Azad and his family as on July 2012 is Rs 3.42 crore along with a flat in Delhi which is not valued. He has a total net worth of Rs 2.22 crore in cash and deposits alongwith a flat in Delhi.

Power Minister M Veerappa Moily has total assets of Rs 30.47 lakh and liabilities of Rs 12.85 lakh, netting total assets of Rs 17.61 lakh, including two cars (Toyota Etios and Opel Astra). His net assets were Rs 13.34 lakh last year.

His wife Malathi, who is stated to have independent source of income from agriculture, has total assets of Rs 3.71 crore and liabilities of Rs 60 lakh, netting total assets of Rs 3.11 crore. This includes 26 acres of agriculture land, a building in Bangalore and 50 tolas of jewellery and a Honda Accord car. She had total assets of Rs 3 crore last year.

Law and Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid has an agricultural land in the name of his family in Gautam Buddha Nagar of Uttar Pradesh worth over Rs 1.30 crore.

While Khurshid himself has cash worth Rs 74.48 lakh, the combined cash holdings of his family - including bank deposits - stand at over Rs 1.22 crore. He has a flat in Jamia Nagar, Delhi worth Rs 5 lakh, his wife Louie owns two flats in Goa gifted by her father.

The Law Minister also owns an agricultural land worth Rs 32 lakh in Farrukhabad in Uttar Pradesh and a barren, non-agricultural land worth over Rs 10 lakh in the same place.

Besides a Mahindra jeep and a Toyota Innova, Khurshid owns a "very old" imported car. The total worth of immovable property owned by Minister of Urban Poverty Alleviation and Housing Kumari Selja is Rs 12.25 crore approximately.

She owns agricultural and non-agricultural land as well as a residential house owned in partnership with others. The Minister, who hails from Haryana, also has movable assets worth Rs 9,91,101. She owns a Maruti Esteem car, jewellery (worth Rs 8.61 lakh approximately) and bonds, shares and fixed deposits. Selja's total net worth is Rs 12.34 crore and the total tax and interest paid by her for 2011-12 is Rs 12,04,661.

The net assets of Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath has been declared at Rs 8.85 crore as on March 31 this year while his wife Alka Nath owns assets worth Rs 4.48 crore approximately.

The figure though formidable may seem paltry in comparison to the over Rs 200 crore declaration made by Nath an year earlier. As per the previous year's declarations, Nath was the richest of all Cabinet Ministers.

Nath has also explained the reduction of figures in his declaration. "In the previous year's declaration, the assets of Shri Nakul Nath, Shri Bakul Nath & Smt Simran Nath were shown. Since they are not dependent family members, it is not required to include their assets. They have therefore, been excluded this year," Nath's declaration said.

The declaration also said the assets of a private trust for the benefit of Nakul Nath and Bakul Nath, who are non-dependent family members, had also been excluded this year.

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You all can protest as much as you want, but Modi will surely amend Waqf Act: Amit Shah

News Network

November 15,2024

Union minister Amit Shah on Friday, November 15, said PM Narendra Modi will amend the Waqf Act despite opposition from leaders like Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar.

"Modi ji wants to change the Waqf Board law, but Uddhav ji, Sharad Pawar and Supriya Sule are opposing it," Shah said, addressing a rally at Umarkhed in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district.

"Uddhav ji, listen carefully, you all can protest as much as you want, but Modi ji will amend the Waqf Act," he said. Shah said there are two camps in the November 20 Maharashtra assembly polls, one of 'Pandavas' represented by the BJP-led Mahayuti and the other of 'Kauravas' represented by Maha Vikas Aghadi.

"Uddhav Thackeray claims that his Shiv Sena is the real one. Can the real Shiv Sena go against renaming Aurangabad to Sambhajinagar? Can the real Shiv Sena go against renaming Ahmednagar to Ahilyanagar? The real Shiv Sena stands with the BJP," Shah said.

"Rahul Baba used to say that his government would credit money in the accounts of the people instantly. You were unable to fulfil your promises in Himachal, Karnataka, and Telangana," he said.

Shah said the Mahayuti alliance has promised that women will get Rs 2,100 per month under the Ladki Bahin Yojana. "Kashmir is an integral part of India and no power in the world can snatch it away from us," Shah said.

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Taliban appoints Ikramuddin Kamil as acting consul in Mumbai as India-Afghan ties improve

News Network

November 12,2024

The Taliban regime has appointed Ikramuddin Kamil as the acting consul in the Afghan mission in Mumbai, Afghan media has reported.

It is the first such appointment made by the Taliban set up to any Afghan mission in India.

There was no immediate comment from the Indian side on the appointment that came.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan has announced the appointment of Kamil as the acting consul in Mumbai, the Taliban-controlled Bakhtar News Agency reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources.

"He is currently in Mumbai, where he is fulfilling his duties as a diplomat representing the Islamic Emirate," it said.

The appointment is part of Kabul's efforts to strengthen diplomatic ties with India and enhance its presence abroad, the media outlet said

Kamil holds a PhD degree in international law and previously served as the deputy director in the department of security cooperation and border affairs in the foreign ministry, it said.

He is expected to facilitate consular services and represent the interests of Afghanistan in India, the report added.

Kamil's appointment comes days after the external affairs ministry's point-person for Afghanistan held talks with the Taliban's acting defence minister, Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, in Kabul.

Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban's deputy foreign minister for political affairs, also posted on X about Kamil's appointment.

The appointment of Kamil is seen as part of efforts to facilitate consular services to the Afghan population in Mumbai.

There has been almost negligible presence of diplomatic staff at the Afghan missions in India.

Most of the diplomats appointed by the Ashraf Ghani government have already left India.

In May, Zakia Wardak, the seniormost Afghan diplomat in India, resigned from her position after reports emerged that she was caught at the Mumbai airport for allegedly trying to smuggle 25 kg of gold worth Rs 18.6 crore from Dubai.

Wardak had taken charge as the acting ambassador of Afghanistan to New Delhi late last year, after working as the Afghan consul general in Mumbai for more than two years.

She took charge of the Afghan embassy in New Delhi last November, after the mission helmed by then ambassador Farid Mamundzay announced its closure.

Mamundzay, who was an appointee of the Ghani government, had moved to the United Kingdom.

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‘Officials to pay from salary’: Supreme Court issues guidelines on ‘bulldozer justice’

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November 13,2024

New Delhi: The Supreme Court took a firm stance on ‘bulldozer justice’ today, affirming that the Executive cannot bypass the Judiciary and that the legal process must not prejudge the guilt of an accused. In a significant judgment, the bench led by Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan set new guidelines for demolition practices, responding to petitions challenging the controversial bulldozer actions taken against individuals accused of crimes.

The rise of this practice, termed 'bulldozer justice,' has seen authorities in various states demolish what they claim to be illegal structures belonging to accused individuals. However, multiple petitions questioned the legality and fairness of this approach, bringing the matter before the court.

Justice Gavai highlighted that owning a home is a cherished goal for many families, and an essential question was whether the Executive should have the authority to strip individuals of their shelter. “In a democracy, the rule of law protects citizens from arbitrary actions by the state. The criminal justice system must not assume guilt,” stated the bench, underscoring that due process is a fundamental right under the Constitution.

On the principle of separation of powers, the bench reinforced that the Judiciary alone holds adjudicatory powers and that the Executive cannot overstep these boundaries. Justice Gavai remarked, “When the state demolishes a home purely because its resident is accused of a crime, it violates the doctrine of separation of powers.”

The court issued a strong warning about accountability, stating that public officials who misuse their power or act arbitrarily must face consequences. Justice Gavai observed that selectively demolishing one property while ignoring similar cases suggests that the aim might be to penalize rather than enforce legality. “For most citizens, a house is the product of years of labor and dreams. Taking it away must be an action of last resort, thoroughly justified,” he said.

In its directives under Article 142 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court established new demolition guidelines. These include:

Mandatory Show-Cause Notice: No demolition should occur without first issuing a show-cause notice. The person served has a minimum of 15 days or the duration stated in local laws to respond.

Transparency of Notice Content: The notice must include specifics about the alleged unauthorized construction, the nature of the violation, and the rationale for demolition.

Hearing and Final Order: Authorities are required to hear the response of the affected individual before issuing a final order. The homeowner will have 15 days to address the issue, with demolition proceeding only if no stay order is obtained from an appellate authority.

Contempt Proceedings: Any breach of these guidelines would lead to contempt proceedings. Officials who disregard these norms will be personally accountable for restitution, with costs deducted from their salaries.

Additionally, the court mandated that all municipal bodies establish digital portals within three months, displaying show-cause notices and final orders on unauthorized structures to ensure public transparency and accountability.

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