Reveal all business links: PM to ministers

Battling a series of scams and allegations of corruption at the highest levels of government, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday reminded his entire cabinet of their responsibility to declare their business interests, assets and liabilities. Chetan Chauhan reports. Manmohan's code

Updated on: Jun 8, 2011, 02:23:02 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Battling a series of scams and allegations of corruption at the highest levels of government, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday reminded his entire cabinet of their responsibility to declare their business interests, assets and liabilities.

The PM’s directive includes cabinet ministers, their spouses and dependents as well. It also now applies to ministers in state governments. Since 2010, such information with respect to cabinet ministers was made accessible to the public under the Right to Information Act.

At the Centre, the information will be provided to the Prime Minister and at the state level to the chief minister by the end of August, a letter written by cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar to all central ministers and chief ministers says.

The timing of the letter is being seen as a signal to Dayanidhi Maran, former telecom and now textiles minister. Allegations that Maran, as telecom minister, favoured associates with telecom licences and spectrum are being investigated, though Maran has denied all the charges against him.

In his last declaration to the PM, Maran had not disclosed his or his family’s business interests. He had only disclosed information about his equity shares in DK Enterprises Private Limited and Reliance Industries and in a social organisation set up in the name of his late father Murasoli Maran.

The cabinet secretary’s letter is much more exhaustive than the first such initiative on transparency taken in May 2009, when Singh took over as Prime Minister for the second time.

For the first time, information regarding employment of any family members of the ministers with foreign government in India or abroad or foreign organizations has been sought.

“Where the wife or a dependent of a minister is already in such (foreign establishment) employment, the matter should be reported to the Prime Minister for decision whether the employment should or should not continue. As a general rule, there should be total prohibition on employment with a foreign mission,” the letter said.

Singh on Monday had said the government was serious about tacking corruption at all levels, and the June 2 letter is one such move.

A group of ministers has already submitted its recommendations on restrictions to be imposed on discretionary quota of the ministers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.