The Uttar Pradesh government has warned its employees that their salaries for August will not be released if they fail to declare their assets before the month ends, The Times of India reported.
Only a fraction of the state government’s employees have declared their assets on the human resources website, the newspaper quoted unidentified officials as saying.
In a letter to department heads, Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Singh said that after several extensions, the final deadline to complete the process will be August 31, 2024. Only those who submit their details for 2023 by this date will receive their salary for August, The Times of India reported.
The letter states that according to an order dated August 18, 2023, all employees were required to declare their movable and immovable assets by December 31, 2023. It was also said that those who fail to make the declaration will not be considered for promotions in department selection committee meetings held after January 1, 2024.
Subsequently, another order was issued on June 6 extending the deadline to June 30. It was stated that failure to meet this deadline would result in disciplinary action under the Uttar Pradesh Government Servant Discipline and Appeal Rules, 1999. The deadline was again extended to July 31.
“Since the process of declaring assets on the human resource portal is being done for the first time, initial problems with the system which may have come up are being kept in mind and another chance is being given,” the letter added, according to the newspaper.
Employees who mistakenly registered their asset details for 2024 instead of 2023 will have to correct their declaration, the letter added. Asset details for 2024 will have to be declared after December 31.
The government has justified the decision saying that the declarations will “enhances transparency and accountability”, NDTV reported. “We have a zero-tolerance policy towards corruption”, the news channel quoted minister Danish Azad Ansari as saying.
The Opposition has criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party government saying that the extension of the deadline showed that the administration had failed to implement its order.
“Why did they not bring this in 2017 [when the BJP came to power in the state]?” said Samajwadi Party spokesperson Ashutosh Verma, according to NDTV. “Now the Yogi Adityanath government is on the back foot, that’s why they are doing this. They have realised all their employees are corrupt. This is a follow up, they were not able to implement this.”
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