S Jagathrakshakan
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
A profile
From the archives of The Times of India May 23, 2013
TAMIL NADU Speed of growth: 5.9 cr-70 cr in 2 yrs
From a railway employee to Union minister, S Jagathrakshakan has seen it all. The assets of this Arakkonam DMK MP and former Union minister of state for commerce and industries have zoomed about 12 times during his tenure as minister in the UPA-2 government. He was elected to the TN state assembly in 1980, to the Parliament in 1985 and served as ADMK’s (as it was then called) parliamentary party leader. After MGR’s death, he quit the party and associated himself with former state minister and MGR acolyte R M Veerappan. He had floated a political party but wound it up in 2009 to contest on a DMK ticket for the Lok Sabha elections that year. He won, defeating his nearest rival, PMK candidate R Velu, and was minister till 2012. According to his election affidavit in 2009, he had declared assets of Rs 5.9 crore. But this increased to Rs 70 crore in a couple of years — the highest percentage-wise increase in the Union ministry during those two years. During this time, Jagathrakshakan’s son J Sundeep Anand and daughter J Srinisha were appointed directors of a host of companies, including Accord Energy Corporation India Pvt Ltd. In 2012, he faced allegations that his family was part of JR Power Gen Pvt Ltd which was awarded a coal block in Orissa in 2007. Jagathrakshakan admitted it. “But it was a sub-contract with Puducherry government and then we gave it away to KSK Company. But, if the government wants to take back the allocation, it can do so,” he had stated then.
