Govt may withhold cash, jewellery
details of babus: Times of India
NEW DELHI: In what could bring relief to
nearly five million Central government employees, the Narendra Modi government
has decided to amend the Lokpal and the Lokayukta Act to give itself a
statutory power to withhold certain information from the
public.
All Central staff, as per the latest order of
the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), have to declare their assets
and liabilities, both movable and immovable, as well as those of their
spouses and dependents latest by September 15. All these information would then
be put up by the respective ministries on their website accessible to
everyone.
A number of representations received by the
government from officials expressed fear that putting details of movable assets
such as jewellery and cash in hand and bank would pose a security
threat to them and their dependents, leave their children vulnerable to
kidnapping and ransom demands. For
instance, an official said he has put all savings in general provident
fund which has accumulated to Rs 75 lakhs over a period of time. Putting
this information in the public domain would leave him and his family
members vulnerable.
Sources said the amendments proposed only
gives the government the statutory power to withhold information
related to officials' movable assets only, such as his cash in hand or
bank and jewellery owned by him or his family members. The government will not be empowered to hold back
information on immovable assets: house or land owned by him.
The amendment also makes it clear that
it will have no impact on the current asset declaration guidelines. The
officials will have to continue declaring all their assets - movable and
immovable as per the previous directive. Only difference the
proposed amendment will make is to ensure certain information is not
made public.
The DoPT is working on the proposed amendment
and has already taken a view from the law ministry to bring in the required
changes. Any fresh amendment will not impact the current declaration
deadline of September 15 which is applicable for all employees.
Once these declarations are received by the
government, it is for the respective ministries to put them up on its website
accessible to all, except those related to the movable assets for which an
amendment is required to implement it.
Source : Times of India
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