(Un)civil servants?

 

 

In a significant first, Madhya Pradesh has made it mandatory for all civil servants in the state to make details of their moveable and immoveable assets public. The state’s general administration department has asked all division heads, collectors and officers on duty to upload details of all employees under them on the MP government’s official website latest by April 30.

This decision was made on the day the State Information Commission, in a landmark order, ruled that “public authorities related to administration are to assure that public servants under their jurisdiction furnish details about their assets every year without fail.”

The order further said: “Even in cases where RTI is not filed, the details should be put on the website and shared with the public. This will help people keep a constant eye on public servants.”

This landmark decision is expected to pave the way for similar directives in other states. Officers from the central civil services, too, might have to declare assets in the near future. MP has seen a phenomenal rise in corruption cases involving high-level officials and ministers. According to the Congress, the state’s principal Opposition party, the minister-bureaucrat-contractor nexus has led to the institutionalisation of corruption. The party has been demanding that officials and ministers declare their assets. This, the Congress believes, will expose the scams that have taken place during BJP rule.

BJP had hitherto refused to comply. When the Congress was in power in MP, it was mandatory for ministers to declare their assets in the Assembly. The BJP discontinued the tradition. In fact, the demand for declaration of assets by bureaucrats was opposed by both the government and the MP IAS Association.

However, the IAS lobby lost its bargaining power when large-scale income tax raids exposed malfeasance on the part of several IAS officials, including a couple of chief secretary rank. This forced the government on to the back-foot.

However, K.K. Mishra, spokesperson of the Congress state unit, is not impressed. He fumes: “The decision has come close on the heels of the income tax raids. No action had been taken in the past. Was the government shielding the accused?”

The government is in damage control mode. Chief secretary Awani Vaishya repeatedly asserts that the government is determined to punish the culprits. The IAS Association denounced the culprit couple in a hastily-called meeting and stressed on the need for administrative reforms to weed out corruption.

However, this face-saving act by the Association did not find many takers. Given their failure to provide a plausible explanation for their opposition to assets declaration, their reaction was seen more as hypocrisy than genuine concern.

Also, the decision of the state information department came as a surprise to the government. Now, even if the government were to reject the decision, officials would have had to declare their assets to the State Information Department. Naturally, the state government did not want its image to be dented any further and supported the decision. The dynamics changed overnight. Those who had opposed such measures in the past were now finding it difficult to stick to their stand. Even ministers have decided to resume the asset declaration tradition in the Assembly. The Opposition is trying to pin down the government on the issue of corruption and it is demanding a special discussion in the ongoing session of the House.

Talking to TSI, the state Congress president Suresh Pachauri said, “The decision has come too late. In fact, it was following the crusade by the Congress’ Rakesh Singh that the BJP had to take this decision.” On the other hand, state minister Kanhaiya Lal Agrawal stresses that there is nothing to hide as the MLAs have to declare their assets anyways at the time of elections, and it is with these very MLAs that the Cabinet is formed.

The deputy leader of the Opposition, Rakesh Singh Chaturvedi, had filed an RTI application in the general administration department and police headquarters last year. He asked both the departments to furnish the asset details of three consecutive years of all IAS and IPS officers. The application was rejected. The department's appellate officers too gave a decision against Singh. He had to go to State Information Commission for a favourable verdict. “The BJP has tried to hijack the achievements of the Congress by ordering this move. However, it's a result of our initiative,” says Singh.

Chief Information Commissioner P.P. Tiwari told TSI, “RTI is an essential tool for transparency in law and ensures corruption-free administration. The declaration of assets by public servants will help curb corruption. We have consulted all the laws and decided to order the declaration and sharing of information about the assets of public servants. This is in the interest of the people. The politicians are also in its purview.”

On the other hand, ex-chief secretary of the state, Nirmala Buch, says, “The decision is good but it will still be difficult to curb corruption. Most officials amass wealth in other people’s names. It will be impossible to ascertain their benami assets. The government is aware of the problem but unless there is political will, nothing fruitful will ever emerge.”

RTI activist Ajay Dubey says, “The government must come up with a mechanism to crosscheck the information furnished on its website. In case of discrepancies, the officer concerned should be punished.” On the other hand, the IAS Association maintains that it has always supported the move. The vice president of the association, Dr V.N. Pandey, told TSI, “There's no harm in declaring assets. We’ll ask everybody to comply with the government order."

Last year, the Information Commission in Punjab had asked several officials to furnish information about their assets. Some of them had amassed assets beyond their known sources of income. Similarly, an IAS officer in Tamil Nadu had volunatarily declared his assets. However, the MP government move is the first time ever that all civil servants in a state have been asked to go public with their material assets.