Padhee bats for openness

Tathya.in, Oct 16, 2010

Arabinda Padhee is taking the lead in giving  positive signal to people.

1996 batch IAS officer, known for his honesty and integrity has appealed the IAS fraternity to make their asset open to public scrutiny.

And a number of officers are agreeing to his idea of web-hosting of property details of IAS officers.

1994 batch IAS Santosh Sarangi was first to respond.

Mr.Sarangi, recently appointed as the Commissioner-cum-Secretary of the Department of ST & SC Development, has opined that it should be done immediately.

1985 batch IAS Surendra Nath Tripathy echoed the view of web-hosting the property details.

One of the most tech-savvy mandarins, the Principal Secretary of the Department of Panchayti Raj has agreed for public scrutiny of the property.

Website of the Department of Panchayati Raj is the most updated one, thanks to initiative of Mr.Tripathy.

1993 batch IAS Nikunja Bihari Dhal took no time to respond such a bright idea.

Commissioner of the Commercial Taxes also agreed for web-hosting of his properties.

1991 batch IAS Satyabrat Sahu, another clean bureaucrat has lauded the initiative of Dr.Padhee.

Mr.Sahu, Commissioner-cum-Secretary Fisheries & Animal Resources Development said “ there is nothing wronf in displaying the property details in the website of Government of Odisha”.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT) too has asked the all India services-IAS, IPS and the Indian Forest Service (IFS)-for their views on making their assets open to public scrutiny.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the cadre controlling authority for the IPS, has, in turn, taken the consent of the IPS Association to list property details of IPS officers on the MHA website.

In the meantime the Government of Madhya Pradesh has issued a directive asking all Government employees to post details of their assets on the department's websites.

Clearly, the crusade is a result of greater transparency among the judiciary and politicians.

Judges made their assets public in November 2009 after much controversy while the assets of electoral candidates have been in the public domain following a Supreme Court order in March 2003.

Even Members of Parliament are meant to file details of their assets and liabilities since the legislation was passed in 2004.

Union Ministers file such details too, but only to the Prime Minister and now the PMO, under an RTI request, has opened these to the public as well.

So time has come for the Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik who has all along adopted transparency in the administration to ask all the officers and ministers for web hosting of their properties for public scrutiny, said a senior BJD leader and former minister.