MHA prunes defaulters’ list

Moving swiftly to correct errors in the list of IPS officers who have defaulted on filing their property returns, the home ministry on Friday struck off names of 151 IPS officers who have already retired from its list that could get shorter over the next few weeks. Spotted

Moving swiftly to correct errors in the list of IPS officers who have defaulted on filing their property returns, the home ministry on Friday struck off names of 151 IPS officers who have already retired from its list that could get shorter over the next few weeks.



On Friday, the home ministry announced it had again told state governments to ensure that all property returns submitted to them by the Indian Police Service (IPS) officers were forwarded to the central government immediately.



There were 864 IPS officers in the original list put out by the home ministry. By Friday, their number had reduced to 713.

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The home ministry statement follows reports in HT about errors in the list that included names of officers who were no longer in service. The name of former chief of the Research & Analysis Wing KC Verma stood out; he had retired last December and wasn't required to file the return.

The ministry's reminder to the states follows complaints from serving IPS officers who figure in the defaulters list that they had already submitted the property returns to their state government concerned.

The reminder confirms the conviction of senior police officers that the long list of defaulters was indicative of sloppy handling of the personal records at home departments of the states rather than the track record of police officers.

The home ministry acknowledged this possibility.

“Unless the property returns are received by the central government… have not option but to assume that the property returns had not been submitted,” the home ministry statement said.