JOIN USR'than ministers borrow more to save more
If you think that ministers are better off than the so called aam admi in terms of borrowing, you are mistaken. Take the case of Rajasthan ministers.
About a dozen of the ministers are in debt, reveals the asset details of the cabinet and state ministers made public recently.
Over 12 ministers have aggregate debts of over Rs 3 crore, reveals the report.
State minister for khadi and village industries Babu Lal Nagar leads the list with debts amounting to Rs 1.18 crore of which Rs 74.50 lakh have been taken from private lenders, while health minister Aimaduddin Ahmad Khan obtained Rs 48 lakh from private lenders, the report showed.
The rural development and panchayati minister Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya has an asset of Rs 73 lakh while his debt is Rs 25 lakh.
Although most of the ministers have furnished agriculture and property details along with pay allowances from the government as their main source of income while requesting for loan, Nagar has failed to produce his sources of income, the report said.
If the ministers’ records are scrutinised, agriculture is a rewarding profession as they got good returns out of agriculture.
However, according to accounting professionals the so called private borrowing and agriculture income is nothing but a means to convert their unaccounted money into white.
Opposition takes charge
This has given ammunition to the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It has demanded an inquiry in to particularly the so called huge debt of the former civil supplies and dairy minister Babulal Nagar.
BJP state spokesman and national executive member Sunil Bhargav alleged that the private loan of the minister is nothing but the huge unaccounted money he had amassed as a minister in the government.
Bhargav said the minister has only adopted an old accounting practice by which Nagar has converted his black money into white by this private loan.
He said the inquiry should cover the income of the family members to unearth the truth.
Bhargav himself a chartered accountant pointed out that this assumes importance especially in the context of the charges of corruption against Nagar when he was a minister for civil supplies and dairy.
There were charges of corruption against him in the wheat grinding for distribution through the PDS and in the purchase of fortified wheat flour for which the Prime minister’s office had asked for an inquiry.
He said according to the account he took private loans in 2008 and there was no record of any payment of interest or principal amount.
Following allegations of corruption, Nagar has been shifted to the khadi and villages industries in the last ministerial reshuffle.