35 out of 77 Union ministers fail to provide PM with details of assets

Thirty-five of the 77 Union Ministers have failed to file annual details of their assets and liabilities before the Prime Minister even over a month after the passage of the deadline.

As the deadline passed on August 31, 18 of the 32 Cabinet ministers, seven out of 12 Ministers of State with Independent Charge and 17 of the 33 Ministers of State have filed details of their assets and liabilities till today.

Among the Cabinet ministers who have skipped the deadline include Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh, Law Minister Kapil Sibal, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal, HRD Minister M M Pallam Raju and Water Resources Minister Harish Rawat.

Prominent among the Ministers of State who have failed to file their details so far are Shashi Tharoor (HRD), R P N Singh (Home), D Purandeswari (Commerce), Pradeep Jain (Rural Development) and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (Railways).

The Cabinet ministers who have so far declared their details include A K Antony, Sharad Pawar, Sushilkumar Shinde, P Chidambaram,  M Veerappa Moily, Mallikarjun Kharge, Oscar Fernandes and Salman Khurshid.

According to the Code of Conduct for Ministers - both at the Centre and in the states - all ministers have to disclose details of their and their family members' assets and liabilities, and business interests to the Prime Minister or the Chief Minister as the case may be.

Every year, the Cabinet Secretary writes to the Union ministers reminding them of the August 31 deadline to file their details as per the Model Code of Conduct. The details are uploaded on the Prime Minister's official website.