Moving ahead as per the vision of Parkash Singh Badal, Chief Minister Punjab and Sukhbir Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister Punjab to bring transparency in Governance, the Punjab Government has initiated the process to upload Annual Property Returns of all Group A and B officers on the official website of the state government. The arrangements for digitization and uploading of Annual Property Returns were finalized in a high level meeting held under the chairmanship of Mr. Sarvesh Kaushal, Chief Secretary, Punjab.
Disclosing this here today an Official Spokesman of the state government said that this exercise has been initiated in compliance of the directions of Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister,Punjab who is also the Minister incharge of Governance Reforms to provide corruption free governance and maintaining high standards of integrity in public service . In the first phase, Annual Property Returns (APRs) of all Group A and B including IAS/PCS officers would be uploaded on the state government website within 45 days. He said that in the next phase, all other officers working in different government departments and its entities would also be covered. This process will continue to cover all employees of the Government, Public Sector Undertakings, Corporations and other entities of the State.
He further stated that for the newly recruited employees, the APRs would include their movable and immovable assets. Whereas for other officers, their immovable declaration of assets would be digitized and uploaded on the official website.Secretary, Personnel has been deputed as the nodal officer for this exercise who would coordinate with all the Administrative Secretaries and Head of Departments and get the APRs of the officials scanned in a time bound manner. Punjab State e-Governance Society (PSEGS) under the Department of Governance Reforms shall provide the technical resources and technical support for the digitization and uploading process of the APRs. For this Scanning & Digitization exercise, heavy duty scanning centers would be set up by the State Government in which scanning of APRs of officers would be done in stipulated time period.
Further uploading of scanned APRs would be done on Punjab State portal by Punjab State e-Governance Society (PSEGS). Chief Secretary further instructed the Principal Secretary, Governance Reforms to set up a dedicated Content Audit & Updation cell for periodic monitoring and review of the content of various Government websites including State portal.Prominent amongst others who were present in the meeting included Mr. C.Roul, Principal Secretary, Governance Reforms, Sh. Vikas Partap Singh, Secretary Personnel, Mr. Raj Kamal Chaudhary, MD Punjab Infotech, Sh, Kandhola, Director Governance Reforms and other officials & IT Professionals from Department of Governance Reforms.