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Nation CIVIL SERVANTS NOTHING TO DECLARE Officers are hiding behind a lacuna in rules to prevent full disclosure of assets SIPRA DAS/www.indiatodayimages.com By Shyamlal Yadav he All India Service (Conduct) Rules framed in the 1960s are explicitly in favour of trans- Tparency for officers of the IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Services. According to the rules, every officer must “on their first appointment to the service, submit a return of his assets and liabilities giving full particulars re- garding: the immovable property owned by him, or inherited or acquired by him or held by him on lease, either in his own name or in the name of any member of his family or in the name of any other person; shares, debentures, postal Cumulative Time Deposits and cash including bank deposits inherited by him or acquired or held by him; other movable property inherited by him or similarly owned, acquired or held by him; and debts and other lia- bilities incurred directly or indirectly.” INTERVIEW I K.M. CHANDRASEKHAR Those requirements stand seri- ously diluted if the information on the “Rules will have to be amended” assets and liabilities of serving secre- taries to the Government of India, Cabinet Secretary K.M. Q. There were over 1,000 Group- accessed by INDIA TODAY through RTI, are Chandrashekhar, spoke to Shyamlal A officers at the Centre who did not an indicator. It was not easy getting Yadav on many issues regarding file their annual IPR till two months access to even this limited information, bureaucracy. Excerpts: ago. But there is no penalty for on just the immovable assets of around Q. Is there a proposal to put the defaulters. 120 secretary-rank officers. It took two assets of bureaucrats on websites A. Just like we follow up the case years of argument and persuasion like in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh? of ministers, we should follow up the with the Department of Personnel and A. I have given instructions that case of bureaucrats. Training (DoPT) and the Central any query under the RTI Act about my Q. You had announced your Information Commission (CIC) to finally returns need not be referred it to me. office will be paperless from April get the information. I have no problems about declara- 2011. Is it really going to happen? Civil servants have exploited a tion of assets. It would be useful to A. It has already started. There lacuna in procedure to prevent the dec- put assets of officers on websites. are some sensitive papers which we laration of moveable assets. While rule Q. Bureaucrats not need to file cannot put online. But the rest of it is 16 of the AIS Rules has a provision for movable assets annually under the increasingly coming under the movable and immovable property dec- present rules. e-filing system. larations at the time of selection into A. Under the present circum- Q. Shouldn’t officers dealing service, the annual Immovable stances, it would be a good thing to with RTI be given some incentives? Property Returns (IPRs) submitted to the declare all assets of officers. A. The officers will have to wait DoPT only requires officers to update the Q. Is there any need to amend till the next pay commission. But we status of their immovable properties. the rules to revise the format? are trying to introduce the perform- This is in sharp contrast to those in A. It will have to be amended and ance management system. Once politics: all electoral candidates, mem- the format will have to be changed. I this system is in place we can link bers of legislatures and members of think the DoPT is working on it. that too. ■ 42 INDIA TODAY ◆ MARCH 14, 2011 Nation SHAILESH RAVAL/www.indiatodayimages.com council of ministers are supposed to declare all their assets, movables and immovable. Following a 2003 Supreme Court order, electoral candi- dates are required to give the details of “cash, deposits in banks, bonds, debentures and shares, other financial institutions, motor vehicles, jewellery, other assets, agriculture land, non agriculture land, commercial and res- idential buildings, houses and apart- ments with current market value of each of them and loans and govern- ment dues.” DoPT sources concede that the format for bureaucrats is not so de- tailed. Says Arvind Kejriwal, RTI ac- tivist, “There is a lacuna in the service conduct rules. There must be annual declaration of all movable and immov- able assets and their sources.” Many officers are not even ready to GUJARAT declare immovable assets. According to DoPT sources, 26 officers of secretary and additional secretary rank in the Justice After Godhra Government of India had not submit- ted their IPRs for the year 2009 until In the next eight riot cases, the accused are Hindus November 2010. The deadline for sub- mission of the details was January 31, he Godhra verdict on March 1, Ehsan Jafri. Says public prosecutor 2010. According to DoPT sources, 150 in which 11 accused were Sudhir Brahmbhatt, “The judgment in directors, 207 deputy secretaries and Tsentenced to death and 20 to life almost all these cases will be delivered 799 under secretaries had also not imprisonment for burning the in less than six months except in the submitted their returns on time. The Sabarmati Express and killing 59 kar Naroda Patiya case where 190 wit- declaration is mandatory but there is sevaks have passed off peacefully. nesses are yet to be examined”. no provision for punishment or penalty But this may also be the beginning of a While the Muslims will clamour for for the defaulters. rancorous phase in politics, judiciary rioters to be taken to task, delivering More than 20 secretaries refused to and society, with verdicts in eight justice in these eight cases will be more reveal information about their immov- 2002 Gujarat riot cases due in the difficult than in the Godhra case. There able assets to INDIA TODAY. TCA Anant, next few months. are three big differences between Secretary, Statistics, wrote to INDIA Unlike in the Godhra case, the Godhra and these cases. In Godhra, TODAY saying, “Property returns con- accused in all these cases are Hindus some accused were apprehended by taining details of property, its value etc. and the victims Muslims. Some of the the police from the spot of the incident as furnished by me is purely personal top names in the accused list include but that didn’t happen in these cases. information and therefore, the same former BJP minister Mayaben Kodnani The mob at Godhra was just around may not be disclosed under RTI Act.” and VHP leader Jaideep Patel who face 1,000 while in other cases, the number The CIC, in its August 25, 2010 order, the charge of instigating crowds at of rioters varied from 10,000 to had said while these declarations are Naroda in Ahmedabad. 25,000. It makes the task of pinning not confidential, since these have third Three of these cases—Naroda down the accused much tougher. In party information, the DoPT should Patiya, Narodagam and Gulberg Godhra, the accused faced conspiracy take the views of officers concerned Society—belong to Ahmedabad city charge but in these eight cases, the before disclosing them. At least some while the rest are from rural areas in attacks were spontaneous. officers seem to have opted to hide be- north and central Gujarat. The most The investigation by the Supreme hind the CIC’s nuance. Speaking to INDIA gruesome of all these are the two from Court-appointed Special Task Force TODAY, Cabinet secretary K.M Naroda Patiya and Gulberg Society . In also proved that some charges were Chandrasekhar said for complete Naroda Patiya, 98 Karnataki Muslims wrongly levelled by Muslims at the transparency, the rules “will have to be were killed by a Hindu mob of 25, 000. insistence of human rights activists. amended and the format changed. The In Gulberg Society, 69 persons were This may work in favour of some of DoPT is working on it,” he said. ■ killed, including Congress leader the accused. by Uday Mahurkar 44 INDIA TODAY ◆ MARCH 14, 2011.

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