13 lakh UP govt employees at risk of salary halt for failing property disclosure

Approximately 13 lakh Uttar Pradesh state government employees could be losing their monthly salaries, promotions and other benefits if they fail to comply with the Yogi Adityanath's government’s latest directive by the end of this month.

As per the instruction, government employees have been instructed to declare their movable and immovable assets on the ‘Manav Sampada’ portal by August 31. Incompliance with the order will result in the withholding of their salaries for this month and potentially impact their promotions. All categories of officers and employees are instructed to disclose their movable and immovable property details.

Of the 17,88,429 government employees in Uttar Pradesh, only 26 per cent have reportedly updated their property details on the Manav Sampada portal so far. This means that over 13 lakh employees have yet to comply with the order.

Deadline extensions

The order was initially issued in August last year with a deadline set for December 31 but has since been extended multiple times to June 30 and then to July 31 due to low compliance. The deadline has now been extended to August 31.

Although the deadline has been extended in the past, this time it came with an ultimatum from Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Singh. He announced that only employees who update their property details on the Manav Sampada portal by August 31 will receive their August salaries, while the salaries of those who do not comply will be withheld.

Principal Secretary of the Personnel Department, M Devraj, has circulated the order issued by the Chief Secretary to all Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Secretaries, as well as Department and Office Heads. According to the order, employees who fail to submit these details will not be eligible for promotions.

Government's justification vs. opposition's reaction

The state government has defended this move, stating that it is intended to “enhance transparency and accountability,” Minister of State Danish Azad Ansari told NDTV. “This measure is part of our commitment to transparency and accountability. We have a zero-tolerance policy towards corruption under the leadership of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”

The opposition has criticised the move, arguing that the repeated deadline extensions highlight the state government's failure to enforce its order.

“Why didn't they introduce this in 2017? The Yogi Adityanath government is now on the back foot, which is why they are taking this step. They’ve realised their employees are corrupt. This is a follow-up because they couldn’t implement it before,” said Samajwadi Party spokesperson Ashutosh Verma to NDTV.

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