How India's civil servants flout norms

Suspended IAS couple Arvind and Tinu Joshi are among 127 officers who have failed to submit their immovable property returns to the government within the stipulated time period this year.

The Joshis, both 1979 batch officers of Madhya Pradesh cadre, hogged the news after the Income Tax department raided their residence in February, 2010 and unearthed assets valued at Rs 360 crore.

The duo, who was later suspended by the Madhya Pradesh government, had submitted IPR for 2010. The state government has recommended dismissal of both the officers from the service to the Centre.

Of the total erring officials, a highest of 32 IAS officers are from Madhya Pradesh cadre, 16 from Uttar Pradesh, 14 from Punjab and 12 from Odisha cadre who have not submitted their property details for 2011, according to a latest data from the Department of Personnel and Training.

Besides, eight officers of AP cadre, seven each from Haryana and Karnataka, four each of Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram-Union Territories, Uttarakhand, Nagaland and Manipur-Tripura cadre, three from West Bengal cadre, two each from Assam, Tamil Nadu and one each of Chhattisgarh, HP, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Kerala, Sikkim and Rajasthan cadre.

The total sanctioned strength of IAS is 6,154, including 1,885 promotion posts. Of these, 4,377 officers are in position.

An all-India service officer is bound to file property returns of a year by January end of the following year, failing which promotion and empanelment to senior level postings may be denied.

The data also include L V Nilesh, a 1991 batch IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre, who was deemed to have resigned from the services by the government earlier this month for unauthorised absence from duty.

There are 216 other IAS officers who did not submit IPRs for the year 2010.

Among these officials, a highest of 30 officers are from West Bengal cadre, 24 from Karnataka, 19 from Jammu and Kashmir, 17 from Bihar, 16 from Madhya Pradesh, 13 from Odisha, 10 each from Uttar Pradesh and Manipur-Tripura cadre and eight each from Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram-Union Territories and Uttarakhand cadres have failed to submit the mandatory property returns.

Seven IAS officers of Punjab cadre, six of Himachal Pradesh, five of Kerala, four each of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Haryana, three each of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and two each of Assam, Sikkim and Nagaland and one each of Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Maharashtra have not submitted their IPRs for 2010, according to the DoPT data.

The IAS officers have earlier claimed that they had submitted their IPRs in time but the state governments did not send them to the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and

Pensions, which acts as a nodal ministry related to administrative matters.

Besides these officials, there are 453 officers of Indian Police Service who have failed to submit their IPR of the last year. The sanctioned strength of IPS is 3,393.