Declaration of assets: Govt to nail erring officials

PATNA: Some IAS and IPS officers and officials of the state administrative and police services are yet to declare their assets, though the deadline fixed by the state government for it that is February 28 has lapsed. These officials may risk not only their February salary being held up, but are also likely to be served show cause notices for non-compliance of the executive order.
Principal secretary, general administration department (GAD), Deepak Kumar said that though most of the bureaucrats have submitted their asset details, a few of them have not met the February 28 deadline citing reasons.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday refused to comment on the issue of non-compliance of the directive. However, all the district magistrates have been asked to serve show cause notices to members of state administrative service who have not complied with the directive, said the GAD principal secretary.
Some of them said that the delay is due to their preoccupation with the office work. Finance department principal secretary Rameshwar Singh, said:
GAD sources also said that a few IAS officers had recently sent a missive to chief secretary Anup Mukherjee not to publicize their assets apprehending threats. GAD and other government departments will upload assets of all the state government employees down to assistants by March 5. The asset details of the chief minister and 29 ministers have already been uploaded on the GAD site.
Deepak said that an estimated 85 per cent employees have declared their assets by the deadline.