The wives of ministers in the Nitish Kumar-led government in Bihar are richer than their husbands, details of movable and immovable assets declared by the ministers for the year ended December 31, 2011 have revealed.
The property details of the ministers and their family members were posted in the Bihar government website before the Assembly election conducted last October-November as per the directive of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
The ministers, whose spouses have earned more movable assets, are: Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh, Health Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Building Construction Minister Damodar Raut, Rural Development Minister Nitish Mishra and Water Resource Minister Vijay Kumar Chowdhary.
According to the details, Narendra Singh has movable assets worth Rs 25.50 lakh while his wife Sagarmani Devi possess more property than Singh.
She has movable assets worth Rs 27.42 lakh.
Similarly, health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey's movable and immovable properties were less than his wife.
Choubey has movable and immovable assets worth Rs 61.24 lakh while his wife Nita Choubey owns property worth Rs 94.99 lakh, over Rs 30 lakh more than her husband.
Deputy Chief Minister S K Modi, who also holds the charge of finance department, has movable assets worth Rs 25.78 lakh, while his wife J S Modi is owner of movable assets worth Rs 29.84 lakh.
State water resource minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary, a close aide of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, has movable properties worth Rs 15 lakh while his wife owns movable assets worth Rs 20.28 lakh.