In a 12-month period from the first Covid-19 lockdown last year, 12 Union ministers or their family members bought properties across the country, including agricultural and non-agricultural land from Assam to Tamil Nadu and an apartment in Delhi. According to the Indian Express, this information has been received from the announcement made by him on the website of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
The 78-member council of ministers, which announced the purchase of property in the financial year 2020-21, includes three cabinet ministers, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani, and Shipping and AYUSH Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. . These include nine ministers of state.
In all, a total of 21 property purchases were announced on the PMO website from April 2020 by 12 ministers, including seven agricultural lands. Union minister Irani and five ministers of state bought properties in their respective Lok Sabha constituencies.
Besides the 12 ministers, cabinet minister Giriraj Singh and his wife sold two of their properties during this period. Whose cost was 4 times and up to 6 times more than the cost of the property.
In his announcement, Jaishankar informed about buying a second floor apartment of 3,085.29 sq ft in Vasant Vihar, South Delhi for Rs 3.87 crore. It shows the date of purchase as August 8, 2020, and the property he has purchased in the name of himself and his wife.
Irani’s announcement details the purchase of a property in Amethi, the Lok Sabha constituency of UP where she won the election in 2019. Irani purchased 0.1340 hectares of land in Medan Mavai village on February 19, 2021 at the “present price” of Rs 12.11 lakh.
Sonowal reported the purchase of three properties in Dibrugarh in February this year, when he was the chief minister of Assam. A month later, the BJP retained power in Assam and replaced Sonowal with Hemant Biswa Sarma as the chief minister. On July 7, 2021, Sonowal was inducted into the Union Cabinet as the Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and AYUSH.
Sonowal’s declaration shows that he had bought three parcels of land in Mankotta Khanikar Mauja for Rs 6.75 lakh (February 1), Rs 14.40 lakh (February 23) and Rs 3.60 lakh (February 25).
Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh’s announcement shows that he sold his 650 square meter flat at Shivam Apartments in Patna for Rs 25 lakh on February 2, 2021. In last year’s announcement, he showed the “cost of the property” to be around Rs 6.5 lakh.
Singh’s wife Uma Sinha sold one of their properties – a 1,087 square meter house in Deoghar, Jharkhand – for Rs 45 lakh. The website of the PMO currently contains the declaration of assets and liabilities of the Union Ministers from 2013-14.
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