The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) website states that Delhi Government’s top bureaucrats have not filed their annual immovable property returns (IPRs) till date.
AAP Government’s Chief Secretary KK Sharma, Secretary (Health) Amarnath, Principal Secretary (Urban Development) Chetan Bhushan Sanghi, Principal Secretary (GAD) Arvind Ray, Principal Secretary (Power) Shakuntala D Gamlin, Secretary (Environment) Ashwani Kumar, Secretary (Education) Punya Salila Srivastava, Food and Supplies Secretary Sanjeev Khirwar , NDMC chairperson Naresh Kumar, CEO (Elections) Chandra Bhushan Kumar and Secretaries of Delhi lieutenant Governor and Chief Minister Subhas Chandra lal Das and Rajendra Kumar respectively, and the commissioners of BJP-led North, South, East Municipal Corporations — Praveen Kumar Gupta, Puneet Kumar Goel and Mohan Jeet Singh respectively are reportedly among a large number of AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram Union Territories) cadre officers who have not filed their Annual Immovable Assets Returns so far.
The Government had directed the bureaucrats and other officers to file their IPR latest by December 31 last year.
The Ministry’s website shows that these officers had not filed submitted these mandatory details under the lokpal and lokayoukta Act, 2013. The rules, notified under the Act, stipulate December 31 as the last date of filing the returns.
As per the Public Servants (Furnishing of Information and Annual Return of Assets and liabilities and the limits for Exemption of Assets in Filing Returns) Amendment Rules, 2014, all the Central Government employees except those working as peons or multi-tasking staff need to file property returns.
The DoPT had asked secretaries of all the Central Government departments to take necessary action and ensure compliance with the rules by all concerned. Similarly, state governments and union territories too had been asked by the DoPT to ensure filing of property returns by officials of all India services (Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service and Indian Forest Service) working under their jurisdiction.
Sources said the vigilance clearance is not given to officers who do not submit their complete details of their assets to the Government. “If any officer does not submit these details, his or her promotion can be stalled.” According to the rules, filing of Annual Immovable Returns by Group A and B in terms of Rule 18 (1)(ii) of the Conduct Rules, 1964, makes it mandatory for the officers to give full details of their property inherited by them on lease or mortgage either in their own name or in the name of their any family member.