New Delhi: Central government employees may be
exempted from filing details of their assets and liabilities twice -- as
mandated under Lokpal Act and other service rules governing them -- as the
Centre has suggested a way out.
As per the Lokpal Act, every public servant
shall file the returns of his assets and liabilities, including that of his
spouse and dependent family members. These returns are in addition to the
similar ones filed by the employees under various services rules.
"The requirement of filing returns
regarding assets and liabilities under the Lokpal Act is in addition to, and
not in derogation or suppression of the requirement of filing of property
returns under the existing conduct rules.
"In view of this, the requirement of
filing of property returns under the existing conduct rules is an independent
requirement under the applicable rules and the same can be dispensed with, only
by amending those rules," the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT)
said.
In other words, the requirement of filing
returns of assets and liabilities under the applicable conduct rules has to
continue, till such time as the provisions of those rules are harmonised with
the relevant provisions of the Lokpal Act and the rules framed thereunder by
carrying out appropriate amendments in them, it said in an order issued
yesterday.
All ministries, departments and cadre
controlling authorities have been asked to ensure that necessary follow-up
action for harmonising the provisions of the relevant service rules is
completed before 15 July, the DoPT said.
The Centre had in an order issued last month
revised the time limit of bringing in changes to the the relevant service rules
to 18 months from the date of Lokpal Act coming into force, i.e 16 January
2014.
Till, the rules are not harmonised, all public
servants have been asked to file their annual property returns as per the
existing service rules and Lokpal Act.
The last date for filing the assets details
under the Lokpal Act is till April this year.
As per the Lokpal Act, every public servant
shall file the returns of his assets and liabilities, including that of his
spouse and dependent family members, on 31 March every year on or
before 31 July of that year.
For the current year, the last date for filing
these returns was 15 September, which was later extended to December-end
and now till 30 April 2015.
All Group A, B, and C employees are supposed
to file a declaration under the new rules. There are about 26,29, 913 employees
in these three categories, as per the government's latest data.
Source : PTI
