Only 7 Andhra Pradesh ministers declare assets

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Only seven of the 37 Cabinet ministers have complied with Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy’s directive to submit details of their assets, as he himself failed to do so.

Interestingly, textiles minister P. Shankar Rao, while not submitting any details himself, has asked for information about others' assets under the Right To Information Act.

This has put the senior officials of the administration in a quandary.

“We have to reveal to the world that the Chief Minister did not submit any details,” a source said. There is also the tricky situation wherein the applicant himself (Dr Shankar Rao) is a defaulter.

Following Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking his ministerial colleagues to declare their assets, the Chief Minister had given a similar order to his Cabinet and set a deadline of August 30.

Sources said that only Kasu Krishna Reddy (cooperation), A. Ramnarayana Reddy (finance), P. Sabita Reddy (home), P. Lakshmaiah (IT), V. Vasanth Kumar (tourism) and S. Sailajanath (primary education) declared their assets.

Shankar threatens to expose others

The Chief Minister, meanwhile, came out in support of the ministers who failed to meet the deadline stating that they would have anyways submitted the details to the Assembly Speaker.

He, however, went on to announce that a reminder would be sent to the defaulters to comply with his order before September 15. The situation has remained the same even a month after the new deadline.

Meanwhile, Dr Shankar Rao, who had accused his Cabinet colleagues Sabita Reddy and excise minister M. Venkata Ramana of corruption, threatened to expose other ministers too. He seems to have started this move with the help of the RTI Act.