Majority of RS MPs say they have no paid work; yet 58% are crorepatis

Although 58 per cent of Rajya Sabha MPs are worth over Rs1 crore according to Election Commission data, the majority of them - 140 of 232 MPs – have declared that they do not have any pecuniary interests such as directorships of companies, controlling shares, regular salaries, paid consultancies and professional engagements.

The MPs who have declared the highest remuneration - cumulative of directorships, regular remunerated activity and professional engagements - include Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who tops the list at Rs50 crore per annum, followed by Vijay Mallya (Rs41.4 crore), Arun Jaitley (Rs10 crore), Ram Jethmalani (Rs8.41 crore) and Naresh Gujral (Rs4.79) crore.

The top three MPs who said they do not have any pecuniary interests yet have high assets are T Subbarami Reddy (Congress), Karan Singh (Congress) and Rajkumar Dhoot (Shiv Sena). Reddy, Singh and Dhoot have total declared assets worth Rs259.25 crore, Rs57.89 crore and Rs29.53 crore respectively.

Others on the list of 'crorepatis' with no official remunerative activity include Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with assets worth Rs4.30 crore, Congress's Avinash Pandey (Rs29.05 crore), Ambika Soni (Rs17.59 crore), Satish Sharma (Rs14.05 crore), G Sanjeeva Reddy (Rs6.68 crore) Vilasrao Deshmukh (Rs5.92 crore), M S Gill (Rs4.53 crore), former BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu (Rs7.72 crore), DMK's K P Ramalingam (Rs4.48 crore) and Shiromani Akali Dal's Sukhdev Singh (Rs4.04 crore).

The information was accessed by voluntary groups Association of Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch, which received it under the Right to Information Act after a two-year struggle and the intervention of the Chief Information Commissioner, and made it public on Thursday.

"In their declaration forms given to Election Commission, some of these 140 MPs have declared assets worth crores. According to Election Commission data, about 58 per cent of Rajya Sabha members are 'crorepatis'. It is interesting to see that they have assets yet no regular pecuniary interests," said Anil Bairwal, national coordinator, National Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).