BENGALURU: Four of the country's 10 richest ministers are from Karnataka, and 97% of the state's ministers are crorepatis, according to a report by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on crorepati ministers in 29 states and two Union territories.
Besides energy minister D K Shivakumar, who is the second richest minister in the country with assets worth Rs 251crore, labour minister Santosh Lad comes in third with assets worth Rs 186 crore. Planning minister M R Seetharam ranks sixth with assets worth Rs 136 crore and youth empowerment and sports minister Pramod Madhwaraj is in 10th place with Rs 105 crore.
Those with high assets have their liabilities too and again, Shivakumar tops this list with liabilities of Rs 105 crore, Seetharam comes in third with Rs 53 crore, Madhwaraj is fourth with Rs 44 crore and water resources minister M B Patil ranked 10th with Rs 19 crore. Patil's assets are worth Rs 40 crore.
Andhra Pradesh minister Ponguru Narayana who is the richest minister with assets worth Rs 441crore and liabilities of Rs 44 crore. The `poorest' minister in the country is Samajwadi Party's Tej Narayana from Faizabad constituency in Ayodhya, who has declared assets of just Rs 66,612. ADR in a statement said it sourced the details from the affidavits filed by ministers at the time of submitting nomination papers to the Election Commission.