Of Goa’s newly sworn in nine ministers, four have criminal cases against them and three among the four are accused of serious crimes, poll rights body the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) said on Monday. There are no women ministers in the state cabinet as of now, it said.

Goa Election Watch and the ADR analysed the background of nine ministers, including the Chief Minister, Pramod Sawant, who took oath. The analysis reveals that, 44% of the ministers have criminal antecedents, all are crorepatis with average assets
of `19.5 crore.

Four ministers are educated beyond graduation, three are diploma holders and two have studied up to 12th standard.

The minister with the highest declared total assets is Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate, Panaji constituency, with assets worth `48.48 crores. Govind Shepu Gaude, Priol constituency, has the lowest declared total assets worth `2.67 crores.

A total of eight ministers have declared liabilities, of which the minister with the highest liabilities is Nilesh Cabral, Curchorem, with liability of `12 crores. Mauvin Godinho who previously was the transport minister has no declared liabilities as per his sworn affidavit.

All ministers have declared themselves as businessmen, except for the Chief Minister, Pramod Sawant, who is an ayurveda practitioner and Monserrate who is declared his profession as social worker
and MLA. 

Further five ministers have declared their age to be between 41 and 50 years while the remaining four are of age between 51 and 80 years.

According to the ADR analysis, the four ministers with criminal cases against them include Monserrate, Gaude, Rohan Khaunte, Porvorim and Ravi Naik, Ponda constituency. Monserrate is the only minister with charges of crime against women with the intent of outraging modesty.

Goa’s new ministers have all been mantris in the past. Previously the ADR had warned of increasing criminalisation of Goan politics and money with muscle power being the main qualifications to win elections.