Lokpal and Lokayukta Act : Govt. may withhold cash, jeweliery details in Public Domain
NEW
DELHI: In what could bring relief to nearly five million Central government
employees, the Narendra Modi government has decided to amend the Lokpal and the
Lokayukta Act to give itself a statutory power to withhold certain information
from the public.
All Central
staff, as per the latest order of the Department of Personnel
and Training (DoPT), have to declare their assets and liabilities, both movable
and immovable, as well as those of their spouses and dependents latest by
September 15. All these information would then be put up by the respective
ministries on their website accessible to everyone.
A number of representations received by
the government from officials expressed fear that putting details of movable
assets such as jewellery and cash in hand and bank would pose a security threat
to them and their dependents, leave their children vulnerable to kidnapping and
ransom demands. For
instance, an official said he has put all savings in general provident
fund which has accumulated to Rs 75 lakhs over a period of time. Putting this
information in the public domain would leave him and his family
members vulnerable.
Sources said the amendments proposed only
gives the government the statutory power to withhold information related to
officials' movable assets only, such as his cash in hand or bank and
jewellery owned by him or his family members. The government will not be empowered to
hold back information on immovable assets: house or land owned
by him.
The
amendment also makes it clear that it will have no impact on the current asset
declaration guidelines. The officials will have to continue declaring all their
assets - movable and immovable as per the previous
directive. Only difference the proposed amendment will make is to
ensure certain information is not made public.
The DoPT is
working on the proposed amendment and has already taken a view from the law
ministry to bring in the required changes. Any fresh amendment will not impact
the current declaration deadline of September 15 which is applicable for all
employees.
Once these
declarations are received by the government, it is for the respective ministries
to put them up on its website accessible to all, except those related to the
movable assets for which an amendment is required to implement it.
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