Assam babus reluctant to submit property returns

Dispur reminders, service rules, provisions for discipliry action — nothing deters errant officers

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, June 15: Nearly half of the Assam Civil Service (ACS) officers in the State have defaulted in submission of their annual property returns, brushing aside the guidelines of their service rules as well as repeated reminders from the government.

There are 688 ACS officers, of which 121 have not submitted their Immovable Property Returns this year. Altogether 288 officers have not submitted their Movable Property Returns.

 According to the Assam Civil Service (Conduct) Rules, 1965, the officers should submit their annual property returns before January 31 every year.

“However, the ACS officers are not submitting their property returns to the government in spite of repeated requests from the cadre controlling authority,” a senior officer in the Personnel department said.

An office memorandum circulated in 2012 clearly states that officers who do not submit their property returns, assets and liabilities in time, would be denied vigilance clearance and will not be considered for promotion, empanelment for senior level posts, deputation to foreign services, permission for foreign tours, bank loans and NoC for obtaining passports.

The non-submission of the returns is also recorded in the ‘integrity’ column of the annual confidential reports of the officers, while there is a provision for discipliry action against the officers for violating the service rules.

The annual property returns submitted by the officers are placed in the public domain.

However, that has not deterred errant officers who have been regularly defaulting in submission of their returns.

Recently, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had mooted a proposal for discouraging corruption. He had said that officers will have to submit photographs of their residences which would be uploaded in the government website. Given the reluctance of the officers to even submit their annual returns, it remains to be seen how far such a proposal can be implemented.