CHENNAI: In a major leap towards transparency within the bureaucracy, the Department of Personnel and Training has published the immovable property returns (IPRs) of IAS officers across the country, on its website. While IAS officers are required to file their IPRs with the DoPT every year, this is the first time that these details have been made public, on the back of intense lobbying and pressure from activists.The asset details now available on the website are based on the filing of IPRs, which had been made compulsory by the DoPT, by a May 31 deadline. Of the 292 IAS officers in Tamil Nadu, IPR filed by 270 were available on the website. Among the officers whose IPRs were not available was Madurai District Collector U Sagayam, who had made history of sorts in 2009 when he uploaded his asset details on his district website. Sagayam insisted that he had filed his IPR with the DoPT well before the deadline. Other officials whose IPRs were not available on the website were TNEB Chairman Hans Raj Verma, TANGEDCO CMD Mohan Pyare, TANSI MD K Allaudin, Youth Welfare & Sports Secretary Shanthini Kapoor, Principal Secretary for Health Girija Vaidyanathan and Horticulture Commissioner B Chandramohan.According to an agency report, Sagayam said, “I had filed my returns as soon as the circular came. It’s been over three months now.”DoPT officials said that the missing IPRs of certain IAS officers on the website did not indicate that these officers had not filed it. “The remaining either might not have filed their returns or the ministry is in the process of putting the data on the site,” Ravinder Singh, DoPT’s Director of Media and Communications was reported as saying. Details of officers’ assets in 23 state cadres and three joint cadres including Assam–Meghalaya, Manipur–Tripura, and Arunachal Pradesh–Goa–Mizoram–Union Territories can be seen on www.ipr.ias.nic.in.
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