Uttar Pradesh government has gone strict on the government employees for not providing details of their assets and has announced to give one month time to submit it.

The government has withheld salaries of over 2.44 lakh of employees who were yet to give their assets details till August 31.

Officials here on Tuesday said that now state employees will be able to give details till October 2.

UP minister Danish Azad Ansari told reporters here on Tuesday that ,”This measure aims to enhance transparency and accountability within the government. We have a zero-tolerance policy towards corruption under the leadership of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”

The initial deadline was December 31, 2023. The deadline was extended multiple times to June 30, and then to July 31.

The state Chief Secretary had given instructions to give details of movable and immovable property on the Manav Sampada Portal by August 31. Till the due date, only 71 per cent of the state government employees have disclosed their assets.

The Chief Secretary, through a government order on August 17, had instructed all the employees to disclose their assets. Besides, orders were given to all the departments to give the salary for the month of August only to those who gave details of their assets by August 31. There are a total of 8,46,640 state employees in the state. Of these, only 6,02,075 gave details of movable and immovable property on the Manav Sampada portal.

Employees of Personnel, Textile, Police Welfare, Energy, Sports, Agriculture and Women Welfare departments were at the forefront in giving details of assets, whereas the Education Department personnel were ahead in hiding their assets. In this respect, Basic Education, Higher Education, Medical Health, Industrial Development and Revenue departments were the most who lagged in the exercise.

When this order was issued on August 17, only 1,31,748 employees — 15 per cent of total — had registered their properties on the portal. The figure increased to 71 per cent between August 20-31.

A senior official of the government said that an order has already been given to stop the salaries of the employees who do not provide details of their assets. All departments will have to ensure its compliance.

DGP Headquarters has sent a letter to the Appointment Department requesting to give some more time to submit the details of assets for their personnel. It has been said in the letter that due to festivals and police recruitment examinations, many police personnel were not able to give details of their assets on time. It is believed that this date can be extended for the Home Department.

According to highly placed sources of the government, the salaries of the officers and employees whose salaries were withheld for the month of August will be released only after they give the details of their assets. On getting the details of their assets, the decision to pay their salaries will be taken by the department concerned after talks with the government.