Over 1,800 IAS Officers Have Failed to Disclose Asset Details

As many as 1,856 IAS officers have not submitted their returns for 2016, as per the data.

Over 1,800 IAS officers have failed to submit details of their immovable assets to the government within the stipulated time-frame this year.

All officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) are mandated to submit Immovable Property Returns (IPRs) of a year by January-end of the following year, failing which their promotion and empanelment can be denied.

As per Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) data, as many as 1,856 IAS officers have not submitted their returns for 2016.

Of them, the highest of 255 such officers are from Uttar Pradesh cadre, 153 from Rajasthan, 118 from Madhya Pradesh, 109 from West Bengal and 104 from Arunachal Pradesh-Goa- Mizoram-Union Territories (AGMUT) cadre.

As per norms, civil services officers are also supposed to give details of their assets and liabilities to the government.

Besides, the officers need to take prior permission from the Central government before accepting gifts worth more than Rs 5,000. They also need to inform the government if they accept gifts of over Rs 25,000 from their relatives or friends, according to the rules.

There are 82 IAS officers from Karnataka cadre, 81 from Andhra Pradesh, 74 from Bihar, 72 each from Odisha and Assam-Meghalaya, 70 from Punjab, 67 from Maharashtra, 64 from Manipur-Tripura and 60 from the Himachal Pradesh cadre who have not submitted the IPR for 2016, according to the DoPT data.

As many as 56 IAS officers of Gujarat cadre, 55 of Jharkhand, 52 from Haryana, 51 of Jammu and Kashmir, 50 from Tamil Nadu, 43 of Nagaland, 38 of Kerala, 33 from Uttaranchal 29 from Sikkim and 26 from newly-formed Telangana have also not submitted their IPRs, it said.

The total sanctioned strength of IAS is 6,500, including 1,450 promotion posts. Of them, 5,004 IAS officers are working in various parts of the country.

Besides, there are 1,527 and 1,537 IAS officers, including some from central civil services, who have not submitted their IPRs for 2015 and 2014 respectively.

As per the details mentioned in an online system meant for submission of IPRs, there are 1,461 and 1,764 bureaucrats who have not given such details for 2013 and 2012, respectively.

A total of 2,150 and 2,418 officers have failed to submit the IPRs for 2011 and 2010 respectively, it said.