‘Will stop empanelment, promotions for violations’
35 J&K officers fail to file Returns
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Nov 26: The Department of Personnel and Trainings (DoPT), Government of India, has decided to stop empanelment and promotion of the IAS officers if they failed to file mandatory annual Immovable Property Returns and didn’t opt for mandatory five year Central deputation after completion of initial service of 10 years.
Official data available with the Excelsior revealed that at least 35 officers of Jammu and Kashmir cadre including 19 IAS and 16 IPS haven’t filed their Immovable Property Returns.
While earlier the violations of not filing Immovable Property Returns and delay in the mandatory Central deputation of five years was taken casually especially for the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir, now when J&K has become a Union Territory, the DoPT has decided to get tough and will stop empanelment and promotion of the officers if they don’t follow strictly the guidelines of the Department.
Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Dr Jitendra Singh said: “It is expected that in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the officers will follow guidelines like other parts of the country and file their Immovable Property Returns and give five years of mandatory Central deputation after stipulated period to have empanelment and promotions in time”.
Even all Union Ministers had uploaded their Property Returns online within days of takeover of Narendra Modi Government for second term in May, which can be accessed by the public online.
The IAS and IPS officers had to file Immovable Property Returns for the calendar year on January 31 next year. However, some of the officers haven’t been adhering to the guidelines.
Official data revealed that 35 officers of Jammu and Kashmir cadre haven’t filed their returns/declaration including 19 IAS and 16 IPS for the previous years.
The Union Ministry for Personnel has also issued a fresh Circular calling upon the IAS officers to update their immovable property returns online or otherwise by January 31 and warned that failure to do so will invite the disciplinary action.
As per the figures, 19 IAS officers of Jammu and Kashmir cadre of different batches haven’t filed their Immovable Property Returns/ declaration so far and they could face action if they didn’t file the returns till January 31 next year.
Among the IAS officers who haven’t filed their immovable property returns/declaration, four were in the rank of Commissioner/Secretaries and an equal numbers of them were posted as the Deputy Commissioners in different districts of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. They belonged from 1993 batch to 2016 batch of Jammu and Kashmir cadre of IAS.
However, name of one of the IAS officers who had recently resigned from the services, also figured in the list, the official data showed.
Similarly, 16 IPS officers of Jammu and Kashmir cadre haven’t filed their immovable property returns.
Significantly, three of them were almost freshers belonging to 2016 and 2017 batches. Some of them have, however, retired from the services while others were holding important posts.
An officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) shall submit an annual return in a specified form, giving full particulars regarding the immovable property inherited, owned or acquired by him or held by him on lease or mortgage, either in his own name or in the name of any member of his family or any other person, according to the rules.
Such annual immovable property return has to be submitted by January 31 of the year.
“Failure on the part of the members of the service to comply with the requirements of the aforesaid provisions constitutes good and sufficient reason for institution of disciplinary proceedings, among other things,” the Personnel Ministry said in a latest order.
In order to further facilitate the filing of Immovable Property Return (IPR), the Personnel Ministry has also introduced online filing of such returns in respect of the lAS officers.
Through this module, the officers can submit the IPR either electronically or upload scanned copy of the manually filled IPR.
This online module closes automatically after the prescribed timeline of January 31, 2020, in respect of the calendar year 2019, the Ministry said.
“I would, therefore, request you to kindly issue necessary instructions to all lAS officers working in your Ministry/ department and its various organizations, to ensure that they submit their IPRs online in the IPR module for the year ending on December 31, 2019, as per the prescribed timeline,” it said in the order issued to Secretaries of the Central Government departments and the Chief Secretaries of the State Governments.
There are 5,205 IAS officers working across the country against their sanctioned strength of 6,699.
According to an updated Personnel Ministry data, 444 IAS officers are yet to submit their latest Immovable Property Return.
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