At the instance of the prime minister, the cabinet secretary has convened a meeting for this purpose in New Delhi on Tuesday to kick off the project. This is s part of the government's strategy to bring transparency in governance, by letting the bureaucrats know that they will be in the public eye to checkmate any wealth generated through foul means.
To begin with, the property details of Indian Administrative Service and Indian Police Service officers will be put up on the website, to be followed by the 18 all-India services. This exercise is to be completed within one year, sources privy to the decision said.
They said the details of some 1,000 bureaucrats had been already uploaded on the website, but they would be made accessible only after the meeting of secretaries convened by the cabinet secretary clears the project.
Some senior bureaucrats have protested that their privacy will be intruded upon by publicising their assets on the Internet, it
is learnt. They say all officers are already required to give these details to the government every year and the government can scrutinise them to nab the corrupt instead of subjecting them to unnecessary harassment by having anybody question their integrity.
A decade ago, former Central Vigilance Commissioner N Vittal had uploaded the details of bureaucrats against whom action had been initiated for alleged corrupt practices, on the CVC website. However, he had to pull out their names after strong protests from bureaucrats.
Sources said the cabinet secretary has already attended three meetings to discuss such issues with his colleagues and they conceded that bureaucrats should not conduct themselves like a "touch-me-not plant", when a similar system is in vogue for those contesting elections.
A view that emerged in the deliberations was that bureaucrats are public servants and their masters are the people who have the right to keep a tab on their financial status and ensure that they do not indulge in corruption.
The Election Commission has been putting up on its website details of the assets filed on affidavit by candidates in the parliamentary and assembly elections.
