PATNA: The personal assets of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar have come down for the second consecutive year, keeping him poorer than his only son, but most of his cabinet colleagues are crorepatis and fond of luxury cars and guns, according to the details of assets furnished by the ministers.
Kumar owns movable assets worth Rs 16.23 lakh, which include a Ford EcoSport car, two gold rings, one silver ring, nine cows and seven calves. His movable assets were worth Rs 16.49 lakh in 2016. A 1,000-sq ft flat in New Delhi’s Dwarka valued at Rs 40 lakh is the only immovable asset the 66-year-old leader, who is also national president of JD(U), owns.
In contrast, the movable and immovable assets owned by Kumar’s son Nishant Kumar, a 37-year-old computer science graduate, are valued at Rs 1.18 crore and Rs 1.25 crore. Nishant has a Hyundai Grand i10 Asta car of 2016 model in his name. The CM has transferred most of his immovable assets to his son in previous years.
Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi of BJP has movable assets worth Rs 94.92 lakh while his wife, Jessie George Modi, owns movable assets worth Rs 1.35 crore. Sushil Modi owns 105 grams of gold while his wife owns 450 grams of gold. The immovable properties jointly owned by the couple are worth Rs 33.73 lakh. While Sushil Modi has no loan, his wife has a loan of Rs 14.59 lakh.
The richest in Bihar’s council of ministers is urban development minister Suresh Kumar Sharma of BJP, whose total movable and immovable assets are worth Rs 10.34 crore, followed by labour resources minister Vijay Kumar Sinha of BJP, whose total assets are worth Rs 8.67 crore. The third richest minister is water resources minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh of JD(U), whose total assets are worth Rs 6.66 crore.
The poorest among the ministers is cooperatives minister Rana Randhir of BJP, whose assets are worth Rs 24.10 lakh. He has no immovable assets. The 42-year-old engineering graduate, however, owns a revolver worth Rs 1 lakh and a rifle worth Rs 75,000. In Bihar’s 29-member cabinet, all except six ministers are crorepatis.
Rural development minister Shravan Kumar has a rifle and revolver together worth Rs 2.5 lakh. Industries and IT minister Jay Kumar Singh has a revolver worth Rs 80,000 and a rifle worth Rs 17,000. Other ministers who own guns include tourism minister Pramod Kumar, agriculture minister Prem Kumar, welfare minister Ramesh Rishidev.
Nitish Kumar set the tradition of getting all the ministers declare their assets after becoming CM in 2005.