Nitish Kumar continues battle against corruption

Three months back, Nitish Kumar had announced his plans for dealing with corrupt officials in Bihar. He had first declared his own assets after setting a deadline for all his ministers and government officials in the state to do so - with plans to post all the information on a public website. Later in January 2011, these officials were warned that if they did not declare assets, they would have to go without salary. The latest on that front, is the news that nearly 85% of the 450,000 government officials had declared their assets - the remaining 70,000-odd were at risk of losing their salaries for the month. Deccan Herald reports

"The salary of only those employees will be disbursed within a couple of days for February 2011 who adhered to the directive of the state government to furnish the assets declaration forms by February 28, mandated by the government," Principal Secretary of the General Administration Department Dipak Kumar said...

...Senior officials of the Department said that all those employees, who failed to submit their details, would be given an opportunity to clarify their stand and the district magistrates have been asked to seek explanation from all such employees...

...Deputy Chief Minister S K Modi had earlier announced that the state government could withhold the salary for the month of February of such employees who failed to submit their asset declaration forms by February 28...

...Several employees' associations had written letters opposing the government's move to make employees' assets public as it would amount to "invasion into one's privacy and can pose security problems," but the state government refused to accept such suggestions and stuck to its stand on weeding out corruption...