By IANS,
Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh government has decided to make public the property details of its ministers and bureaucrats, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said Monday.
“The property details of all ministers, including myself, will be tabled in the upcoming assembly session and all ministers have agreed to it. Property details of bureaucrats and police officers, however, would be put up on the website,” Chouhan added.
Earlier, the Madhya Pradesh Information Commission directed the public information officers (PIOs) of the state government departments to provide details of the declaration of property of the administrative officers.
The decision has come in response to a petition by Choudhary Rakesh Singh, the deputy leader of opposition in the state assembly, demanding officials file property returns of the last three years in public interest.
The appellant had demanded that all civil servants should declare their property details as it concerns matters of public interest. The appellant had argued that if public representatives like Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assemblies had to declare their property details even before assuming positions of power, then bureaucrats, who already enjoy power, should not be exempted from declaring their property details.
State Information Commissioner P.P. Tiwari directed the PIOs of the General Administration Department, the State Secretariat and the Home Department to provide the details sought by the appellant.
“Why should the bureaucrats be spared from making their assets public when even politicians were being made to do so,” Singh told IANS.
“Their properties should be made public to ensure transparency at every level of the government,” he said, adding that the people have every right to know about properties owned by the bureaucrats.