35% of Ministers have serious criminal cases, says ADR report

‘This is 13% more than that of State Cabinet in 2014’

Thirty-five per cent of the Ministers in the YSRCP government have serious criminal cases, an analysis of their self-sworn affidavits by Andhra Pradesh Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms has revealed.

This is 13 percentage points more than that of the Andhra Pradesh Cabinet of 2014, a report of the two organisations released on Tuesday has disclosed. In terms of actual numbers, nine of the 26-member Cabinet faced these serious criminal cases. Similarly, 65% or 17 Ministers have declared that they have criminal cases against themselves, 11% more compared with the previous Cabinet of 2014.

The analysis showed that 88% of the new Cabinet or 23 of the 26 Ministers were “crorepatis”, the average assets of these 26 Ministers working out to be ₹35.25 crores. Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy topped the list with highest assets having declared ₹510 crore, followed by Panchayat Raj, Rural Development and Mines and Geology Minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy with ₹130 crore and Industries and IT Minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy with ₹61 crore. Mr. Ramachandra Reddy had declared liabilities of ₹20 crore, Housing Minister Cherukuvada Sriranganadha Raju had ₹12 crore (of ₹44 crore total assets he had declared) and Tourism and Culture Minister Muttamsetti Srinivas Rao ₹5 crore (of ₹35 crore total assets he had declared).

Three out of 26 Ministers have declared their total annual income to be above ₹ 1 crore, leading them was Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy with ₹38 crore of total annual income declared in Income Tax Returns (including self, spouse and dependents) and ₹25 crore as self income. Mr. Srinivasa Rao showed ₹3 crore as total income and ₹ 1 crore as self, and Education Minister Adimulapu Suresh ₹ 1 crore as total income and ₹28 lakhs as self.

Eight Ministers or 31% of 26 Ministers have declared their educational qualifications to be between 8th and 12th standard while 18 Ministers (69 %) have qualification of graduation and above. Twelve Ministers or 46% have declared their age to be between 31 and 50 years while 14 (54%) to be between 51 and 70 years. Representation to women is 12% or three in terms of number, the report added.