Ministers' affidavits analysed by the Association for Democratic Reforms and Bihar Election Watch.

Patna— According to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), 72% of ministers in the current Bihar cabinet have criminal cases filed against them, with 53% of the members having serious criminal cases against them. Furthermore, considering their assets, the ministers of the Bihar cabinet have average assets of Rs.5.82 crore.

Following the reorganization of the Bihar cabinet on 16 August 2022, the Association for Democratic Reforms and Bihar Election Watch analysed the affidavits of 32 of the 33 ministers from the Bihar State Assembly 2020, including the Chief Minister. Ashok Choudhary, the nominated minister of JDU, is not required to submit his affidavit, so information on his financial and criminal records and other details are not available in the public domain.

Out of the total of 33 ministers in the Bihar cabinet, 12 are from the JDU quota, 17 are from the RJD quota, two belong to the Congress Party and one minister is from Jitan Ram Manjhi's party, and one independent MLA from Chakai, Sumit Kumar, also has a place in the cabinet.

72% ministers have criminal record

According to the report, 23 out of 32 ministers have criminal cases registered against them. Of these, 17 ministers have serious criminal cases filed against them. Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav has the maximum number, that is 11 criminal cases registered against him, while Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has declared that he has one criminal case registered against him.

A party-wise analysis of the criminal cases declared by the members of the Bihar cabinet shows that 15 out of 17 RJDmembers (88%), 4 out of 11 JDUmembers (36%), 2 out of 2 Congress members (100%), 1 of 1 Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) (Secular) member (100%), and 1 of the 1 independent members of the (100%) cabinet have criminal cases registered against them. Party-wise, among the ministers declaring serious criminal cases, 11 out of 17 RJD members (65%), 3 out of 11 JDU members (27%), 1 out of 2 of Congress members (50%), 1 of 1 of HAM and the one independent member has declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

84% of Bihar's cabinet ministers are crorepatis

Out of 32 ministers in the new Bihar cabinet, 27 ministers (84%) are crorepatis [multi-millionaires]. On considering the average assets, the members of the present cabinet of Bihar have average assets of Rs.5.82 crore. In which 9 out of 11 JDU ministers, i.e. 82% and 16 out of 17 RJD ministers, i.e. 94% are crorepatis. Neither of the two Congress ministers are crorepatis, although the independent and the HAM Party ministers have declared their assets in crores.

Out of 32 ministers, 5 ministers have assets of more than Rs.10 crore, and the assets of 7 ministers are stated to be between Rs.5 crore and Rs.10 crore. There are 15 members whose assets are between Rs.1 crore and Rs.5 crore. At the same time, 5 members have assets that are said to be between Rs.2.15 crore and Rs.1 crore.

According to the report, the richest person is the RJD's Sameer Kumar Mahaseth. His total assets are more than Rs.24 crores. At number two is the RJD's Karthik Kumar, whose total assets are more than Rs.22 crore. At number three is JDU's Sanjay Kumar Jha, whose total assets are more than Rs.22 crore. In contrast, looking at the ministers with the least assets, then with stated assets of Rs.17 lakhs, Congress's Murari Prasad Gautam has the least assets. At second number is the JDU's Jama Khan with total assets of Rs.30 lakhs, and on third number is the JDU's Jayant Raj, whose total assets are about Rs.61 lakhs.

Education and age profile of the legislative cabinet

According to the report, 8 out of 32 members, i.e. 25% of Bihar cabinet members have stated their educational qualification as having completed between 8th and 12th grades [of school]. Whereas, 24 members, i.e. 75%, have declared their educational qualification as graduation and above. The RJD's Ramanandan Yadav and HAM member Santosh Kumar Suman are the ministers with the highest educational qualifications — both have done their PhD from Magadh University. Whereas the member with the lowest educational qualification is Tejashwi Yadav, the current Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, who studied until 9th grade at  DPS [Delhi Public School] RK Puram, Delhi.

Age profile of legislative cabinet ministers

According to the report, 17 of 32 ministers, i.e. 53%, have declared their age as between 30 and 50 years. Whereas 15 ministers, i.e. 47%, have declared their age to be between 51 and 75 years. JDU quota minister Bijender Prasad Yadav, who is 74 years old, and the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at 67 years, are the oldest members. At the same time, Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav is 31 years old and the current Environment Minister Tej Pratap Yadav is the youngest member at 30 years.

Participation of women in the Bihar cabinet

Of the total of 33 ministers in the Bihar cabinet, 3, i.e. 9% are women ministers. Sheela Kumari and Lacy Singh from JDU quota have been appointed as ministers. At the same time, from the RJD quota, Anita Devi has been given a place in the cabinet.

यहाँ हिन्दी में भी पढ़ें– बिहार के नए मंत्रिमंडल में 84 प्रतिशत सदस्य करोड़पति, महिलाओं की हिस्सेदारी 9 फीसदी -ADR की रिपोर्ट

[Story Translated By Lotika Singha]