AHMEDABAD: Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel took charge of his office in Gandhinagar on Tuesday.
Along with Patel, 16 ministers have also taken charge of their respective ministries. The new cabinet includes four ministers, who have criminal backgrounds. Whereas, one of the ministers is accused of a serious crime, said Gujarat Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) in a report.
State Minister for Fisheries and Animal Husbandry Purshottambhai Solanki has the highest case registered against him, including four serious IPC counts, while Harsh Sanghvi, Minister, Independent Charge of Home Department, also faces one case. While Health Minister Rushikesh Patel and Agriculture Minister Patel Raghavji face one case each. As far as the financial background of the ministers is concerned, 94 per cent of them are crorepatis.
The ADR report said 16 or 94 per cent are crorepatis. The average assets of 17 ministers analysed is Rs 32.70 crore. Balvantsinh Chandansinh Rajput from Sidhpur constituency is the richest minister having assets worth Rs 372.65 crore, while Khabad Bachubhai Maganbhai from Devgadhbaria constituency has the lowest declared total assets of Rs 92.85 lakh. A total of 14 ministers have declared liabilities out of which the minister with the highest liabilities is Balvantsinh Chandansinh Rajput of Sidhpur constituency with Rs 12.59 crore of liabilities.
As per the report, 6 persons or 35 per cent ministers have declared their educational qualification to be between class 8th and 12th while 8 ministers have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above and three (18 per cent) ministers are diploma holders.