The Centre’s demonetisation of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes has forced the country’s population to queue up in front of banks and ATMs. But politicians and Ministers in particular, seem to be relatively absent from these lines. Publicly available data indicates that a number of Ministers had large cash holdings - not including bank deposits - as on March 31, 2016. The Code of Conduct for Ministers stipulates that they must file details of their assets and liabilities with the Prime Minister’s Office annually. This data, collated by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and accessed by The Hindu , reveals that of the 76 currently serving Ministers, only 40 have declared the amount they had in hand.
The data also reveals that not everyone in the government’s roster of Ministers shares the Prime Minister’s enthusiasm for cashless transactions.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley topped the list with over Rs. 65 lakh, followed by Shripad Yesso Naik, Minister of State (Independent) with Rs. 22 lakh and Hansraj Ahir, MoS (Home) with a little over Rs. 10 lakh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declared cash holdings of Rs. 89,700.
Most of the Ministers, 23 in all, declared that they had under Rs. 2 lakh in cash, while 15 held cash in excess of Rs. 2.5 lakh.
A number of high profile Ministers, including Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti have not declared their assets with the PMO.
