oppn parties Asset Disclosure By Government Employees Needed

News Snippets

  • Sikh extremists attacked a cinema hall in London that was playing Kangana Ranaut's controversial film 'Emergency'
  • A Delhi court directed the investigating agencies to senstize officers to collect nail clippings, fingernail scrappings or finger swab in order to get DNA profile as direct evidence of sexual attack is often not present and might result in an offender going scot free
  • Uniform Civil Code rules cleared by state cabinet, likely to be implemented in the next 10 days
  • Supreme Court reiterates that there is no point in arresting the accused after the chargesheet has been filed and the investigation is complete
  • Kolkata court sentences Sanjoy Roy, the sole accused in the R G Kar rape-murder case, to life term. West Bengal government and CBI to appeal in HC for the death penalty
  • Supreme Court stays criminal defamation case against Rahul Gandhi for his remarks against home minister Amit Shah in Jharkhand during the AICC plenary session
  • Government reviews import basket to align it with the policies of the Trump administration
  • NCLT orders liquidation of GoAir airlines
  • Archery - Indian archers bagged 2 silver in Nimes Archery tournament in France
  • Stocks make impressive gain on Monday - Sensex adds 454 points to 77073 and Nifty 141 points to 23344
  • D Gukesh draws with Fabiano Caruana in the Tata Steel chess tournament in the Netherlands
  • Women's U-19 T20 WC - In a stunning game, debutants Nigeria beat New Zealand by 2 runs
  • Rohit Sharma to play under Ajinkye Rahane in Mumbai's Ranji match against J&K
  • Virat Kohli to play in Delhi's last group Ranji trophy match against Saurashtra. This will be his first Ranji match in 12 years
  • The toll in the Rajouri mystery illness case rose to 17 even as the Centre sent a team to study the situation
Calling the case not 'rarest of rare', a court in Kolkata sentenced Sanjay Roy, the only accused in the R G Kar rape-murder case to life in prison until death
oppn parties
Asset Disclosure By Government Employees Needed

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2016-07-29 12:04:27

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
picture courtesy: the economic times

If corruption has to be weeded out in any country, the process has to start at the top. It is a fact that corruption at the grassroots often stems from the attitude of those at the highest levels. The NDA government has displayed a zero tolerance policy towards corruption and big ticket scams have almost vanished. But lower level corruption is still endemic. Nothing moves in India without greasing the palms of those in authority. Even a lowly peon expects his cut. Officers in government offices often display helplessness as the peon does not bring the required file to their table if the party concerned does not pay him a ‘bakshish’. It is not a secret that “upar ki kamai” is often the status symbol of government employees. It is against this backdrop that the decision of the government to dilute the Lokpal Act by amending the clause that mandated for its employees to declare their own and their family’s assets by July 31 by keeping it in abeyance is particularly disturbing.

The disclosure of assets of self and family by government employees is very much needed to identify such persons who are maintaining a lifestyle clearly at odds with their known sources of income. Those government employees who are not corrupt but have got genuine assets either through bequests or earning capacities of other family members should have no problems with this disclosure. It is the corrupt who will raise a hue and cry regarding this. Although there can be no direct correlation between assets and corruption, it is definitely a pointer and can be used for further investigations. This is what is troubling corrupt employees. The government should not give in to such demands and if it serious about making India corruption-free, it should get this disclosure done in the near future.