Guwahati: Nearly half of the newly appointed ministers in the Uttar Pradesh cabinet have declared criminal cases against themselves and some of serious nature, said a report.
According to the report released by-poll rights body Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said on Saturday, as many as 22 ministers had declared criminal cases against them in their sworn affidavits.
Uttar Pradesh Election Watch and the ADR analyzed the self-sworn affidavits of 45 of the total 53 ministers, including the chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
According to the ADR report, 22 (49%) ministers have declared criminal cases against themselves and 20 (44%) ministers have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
ADR defines serious criminal cases as offences for which maximum punishment is 5 years or more, are non-bailable or an electoral offences. Offenses like assault, murder, kidnap, rape, those under the Prevention of Corruption Act and crimes against women are also defined as “serious criminal cases”.
According to ADR, of the 45 ministers analysed, 39 (87%) are crorepatis and their average assets were Rs 9 crore.
As per his affidavit, Mayankeshwar Sharan Singh from the Tiloi constituency has declared the highest total assets, worth Rs 58.07 crore.
Dharamveer Singh, an MLC is a minister with the lowest declared total assets, at Rs 42.91 lakh.
ADR said that nine (20%) ministers have declared their educational qualification to be between Classes 8 to 12 while 36 (80%) ministers are graduates and beyond.
Twenty (44%) ministers have declared their age to be between 30 and 50 years while 25 (56%) ministers stated that they were between 51 and 70 years old.
Of the 45 ministers analysed, five (11%) are women.