India’s fight for transparency and accountability have been long enough, first demand for Lokpal was made in 1960s. First Lokpal Bill was introduced in 1968 but it lapsed as the Lok Sabha got dissolved before it could be taken and the last attempt was in 2011. However, Judiciary, in 2002, made it mandatory for leaders contesting elections to disclose their assets on Election Commission Website, enabling citizens to have a peek into net worth of their candidates. But these mandatory disclosures did not deter corrupt and criminals to enter election fray as the MPs with criminal record increased from 125 in 2004 to 162 in 2009 to 185 in 2014 to 233 in 2019, which means just by declaring assets is not sufficient to fight corruption. Then came the Right to Information Act in 2005 which made certain things mandatory for disclosures. On Government employees front, GoI made it mandatory to file an Annual Property Return but employees across India are non serious and as each and every website of different states and UTs are filled up with extension notices, in some cases even more than one year has lapsed but still waiting for these returns. These returns are of utmost importance as once in black and white no employee can claim wrong figures or change his/her net worth and these disclosures go a long way in checking any exponential increase in net worth and source of income for such increase. All these returns are then supposed to be scrutinised by vigilance departments and discrepancy, if any, be taken as cognizance to start investigation. But it has not been an easy task at all. Despite repeated reminders even IAS-IPS and state/UT cadre officers defy filing returns and no stringent action has been taken though vigilance clearance is mandatory for deputation or sensitive posts. Somehow bureaucrats have managed the things till now without any major disciplinary action. But now LG administration seems to be serious and 31st January 2023 is the last day for online submission of Annual Property Returns. With the digitisation of land records, Aadhaar seeding of bank accounts and shares, corrupt employees will definitely find it hard to hide corrupt money trails. All these disclosures will go long way as Government has already made its intentions clear about filing of disproportionate assets cases for non adhering employees and deny them necessary vigilance clearance for promotions, pensions and other benefits. It will be interesting to see how all these things transform in the end.
LG Administration has shown its intent to fight corruption at every level, no one will be spared, as such employees have no option but to fall in line and adhere to the Government directive on Annual Property Returns issue or invite strict disciplinary action under the set rules. This zero corruption tolerance policy is going to play an important role in Jammu and Kashmir’s development, message is clear, no one is above the law.
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