Bureaucrats to make assets public

Patna, Jan 14 (PTI) The Nitish Kumar government has madeit mandatory for all bureaucrats to submit details of theirassets, which would be made public by January 31 on the linesof the ministers.

"For bureaucrats who fail to comply with the directivetheir salaries will be withheld thereafter," official sourcestold PTI today.

They would have to file the details in the formatsprescribed for the ministers, the sources said adding theywould have to furnish moveable, immoveable assets list alongwith property details of their spouses and children.

The ministers submitted the details of their assets onDecember 31, 2010 to the chief minister in his bid to bring intransparency in governance and to weed out corruption inpublic life.

"Now, that a decision has been taken to make the assetsof bureaucrats public, Bihar would be the first state to doso and could prompt other states to take a cue from it,"ruling JD(U) spokesperson Sanjay Singh said.

In Bihar, the sanctioned strength of IAS officers isabout 242, while the number of IPS officers is 231. In thestate cadre there are over 2,000 gazetted officers, includingthose in the state administrative service and state policeservice.