Rajya Sabha is now a crorepatis' club

Also, 37 RS members have pending criminal cases, says ADR report

GN Bureau | April 9, 2010




The members of Upper House of the Parliament are growing richer. More than 50 percent of the Rajya Sabha members are crorepatis, says a report released on Tuesday by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

“A total of 98 Rajya Sabha MPs out of analyzed 183 Rajya Sabha MPs, or 54 per cent, are crorepatis,” says the report.

The report also found out that amongst major parties, 65 percent of Indian National Congress (INC) Rajya Sabha MPs are crorepatis, whereas 53 percent of BJP Rajya Sabha MPs are crorepatis.

Rahul Bajaj is the richest Rajya Sabha member with assets of Rs 300 crores followed by M.A.M. Ramaswamy of JD (S) (Rs 278 crores) from Karnataka. The poorest Rajya Sabha members are D. Raja of CPI, who's from Tamil Nadu, and Saman Pathak of CPI(M) from West Bengal. Both these members have shown their assets as zero. An earlier ADR report had revealed that the current Lok Sabha has 315 crorepatis out of 543 MPs (58 per cent).

Out of 219 MPs in the current Rajya Sabha, 37 MPs have criminal cases pending against them, says the report. In fact, 17 percent of the current Rajya Sabha have in their affidavits declared they have criminal cases against them.

The report also says that 12 MPs (out of 219, i.e. 5%) declared serious criminal cases pending against them, which include attempt to murder, kidnapping, abduction, voluntary causing hurt by dangerous weapons etc.

As the deadlock on the women’s bill continues, the report shows that the Rajya Sabha has abysmally low women members. The figures show that only 21 (9 percent) of all current Rajya Sabha members are women.

Read the report here.

Comments

 

Other News

How social media is reshaping elections

Since Brazil’s return to direct presidential elections in 1985, no candidate who finished second in the first round of polling had ever won the presidency. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, now 81, has just done it. What explains the comeback, and what changed in Brazilian politics to make it possi

Cabinet approves Dearness Allowance, Dearness Relief

The union cabinet chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the release of an additional instalment of Dearness Allowance (DA) to central government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners with effect from 01.07.2026 representing an increase of 3% over the existing rates of 6

Cyclone Arnab strikes Andhra as warming oceans amplify storm risks

Cyclone Arnab made landfall along the Andhra Pradesh and Yanam coasts in the early hours of Wednesday as a very severe cyclonic storm, with maximum sustained wind speeds of 125–135 kmph and gusts reaching 150 kmph. Its rapid intensification has raised concerns about how warmer oceans, global warmin

Counting matters but which ones?

The first instinct of public policy is to count. Its harder task is to count what counts. We have become remarkably good at measuring the reach of the welfare state vis-à-vis beneficiaries covered, rupees transferred, houses built, connections installed and services delivered. But some of the most

Inching closer to a trade deal with America

The cooperation between India and the United States goes back quite a time. We need to relegate that era to the backburner when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru visited US in the times of president Dwight Eisenhower and called the American let-off of 10 million dollars in defence aid to Pakistan as a “gun w

Manch vs Musk: Forty people and a foreign billionaire

About forty people walked the roundabout on Teen Murti Marg to the gate of Chanakyapuri police station, a distance you could cover in under a minute, on Friday to protest against Elon Musk’s Starlink. The walk was called by the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch. Nobody joined them on the way, and nobody seeme

Upcoming Conferences



-->

Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter