For the first time,senior officials in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) have been asked to declare their personal assets. Henceforth,all AMC officials will have to declare their assets not only at the time of joining the civic body,but also every year before January 31. With this,the mandatory disclosure under the manual of discipline and conduct of rules in the government service has been made applicable to AMC,as well. Accordingly,the officials of Class II grade and above in the civic body have been asked to disclose their movable and immovable assets as on December 31,2008 latest by June 30. Those working on the revised pay band of Rs 9,300/34,800 at grade pay of Rs 4,200 with pay band code PB 2 are covered in this stipulation. The disclosure is compulsory at the time of joining the AMC or subsequently as and when asked. This forms part of their service book. Municipal Commissioner I P Gautam said the idea behind the legal requirement is to keep a tab on the corruption level and amassment of assets disproportionate to the income of the officials in Class II grade and above. However,the legal provision can easily be circumvented by buying assets in the name of persons other than those covered under the provision in this regard. Gautam agreed this might happen but said there was no system to check this as of now. Since the new stipulation has been declared this year,the officials have been asked to file their property returns by June 30. Now onwards,they will have to file returns in this connection by January 31 every year showing the holdings as on December 31. The order mainly covers those officials who deal with general public including officials in town development and estate department the two departments where a large number of graft charges are leveled.
