JOIN USNath is richest Union minister
On the contrary, many of Antony's colleagues in the Council of Ministers are rich with incomes running in hundreds of crore, agricultural land and houses all over the country, multiple cars, investment in banks and share markets and jewellery. Following the government-civil society stand-off on corruption, the Union Cabinet headed by Manmohan Singh made details of their wealth public on Saturday. Almost all the ministers in the cabinet responded to the Prime Minister's appeal in disclosing their assets.
Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath, with business interests spanning from resorts to immovable property, is the richest minister. Nath’s 35-page declaration suggests he and his immediate family could well be worth over Rs 250 crore.
The Nath family owns two residences each in Bangalore and Delhi in addition to agricultural land in Delhi and Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh. They have heavy investments in banks and companies too. Interestingly, Kamal Nath's wife Alka showed a liability of Rs 1.7 crore on none other than her husband, whereas sons Nakul and Bakul Nath show liability of close to Rs 3.5 crore on their father and Nath Benefit fund, a family-owned trust.
Antony, on the other hand, has lived truly up to his reputation of “St Antony”. His assets include a house worth Rs 15 lakh in Thiruvananthapuram and five cents of land in Kerala worth Rs 15 lakh as well. The defence minister's family owns a second hand Wagon-R vehicle purchased with a loan from Canara Bank.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's assets exceed Rs 5 crore including term deposits, two houses and a 1996 make Maruti 800 car. All declarations have been uploaded on the PM’s website www.pmindia.nic.in
The Prime Minister has no agricultural or non-agricultural land. He owns a house in Chandigarh and one in Delhi, with current market value of Rs 90 lakh and Rs 88.67 lakh respectively. His wife, Gursharan Kaur has over Rs 11 lakh in a saving account.
Among the Big Four in the cabinet, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram is the richest. He and his wife Nalini together have close to Rs 25 crore in assets including his houses in Chennai and Shivaganga in Tamil Nadu.
Coffee estates
A little known fact is both own coffee-growing land in Kodagu. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his wife have assets worth Rs 1.69 crore including two flats each in Delhi and Kolkata, two houses in his home district Birbhum, shares in ancestral property and two vehicles including a Ford Ikon car of 2000 make.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna has immovable assets worth Rs 2.34 lakh, movable assets worth Rs 4.81 lakh, investments worth Rs 3 lakh, and savings worth Rs 12 lakh. His wife's wealth is estimated at Rs 21 lakh.
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has assets worth over Rs 12 crore that include deposits and shares in various companies.
Human Resource Development and Communication minister Kapil Sibal and Chemicals and Fertiliser minister M K Alagiri could also be counted among the richest.
Sibal has two plots of agricultural land including an 18,000 sq ft plot worth Rs 80 lakh in Yelahanka; two pieces of non-agricultural land; share in two commercial properties including a mall in Ludhiana; five houses - in Secunderabad, Patna, Delhi, Chandigarh and Gurgaon, five vehicles and more than Rs five crore in banks. His wife too owns a property in Delhi.
The Alagiri family's worth too is close to Rs 30 crore including five houses, four cars, agricultural and non-agricultural lands and shares in commercial properties.
