Taking serious note of the casual approach being adopted by some employees in regularly filling their property statements, the Jammu and Kashmir Government on Thursday asked all employees to submit details of annual property details between January 1 to 31 and warned against non-submission with an action under Prevention of Corruption Act and denial of their Vigilance Clearance.
"Sub Section 2 of Section 9 of the Jammu and Kashmir Public Men and Public Servants Declaration of Assets and other Provisions Act, 1983 lays down that it shall be incumbent on the part of every public servant to submit annual returns of the assets held by him and his family members in January every year and shall indicate the reasons for the increase, if any, in the assets and source of the same", a circular issued by J&K government reads.
"The Jammu and Kashmir Public Servants Declaration of Assets Act and Rules made thereunder provides for imposing a penalty for non-submission of the property returns by the public servants", the government said in a circular.
"It is further provided that if any public servant without any reasonable cause which he shall be required to show, fails to submit the return annually, he shall be guilty of committing criminal misconduct under the Prevention of Corruption Act and shall be punishable under the said Act".
Employees have also to disclose the assets of their family members
The Act and Rules also lay down that every public servant shall submit annual property returns as per instruction issued by the Government from time to time, in respect of all the assets possessed by the employees and their family members.
"To make the process of filing of property returns employee friendly, the Government of Jammu & Kashmir has launched an online portal for filing of annual property returns (PRS-Portal) by every J&K government employee, as mandated under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Servants Declaration of Assets Act and Rules made thereunder and also as per the provisions of the Employees Conduct Rules, every year ending 31st December, by or before 31st January of the next calendar year," the circular said.
The PRS-Portal is accessible at http://prs.jk.gov.in and the employees can file their annual property returns on the portal from the Ist of January, and the facility automatically gets closed on the 31st of January every year.
"The non-submission of property returns by the employees shall invite action against them under the Prevention of Corruption Act, besides, shall result in denial of their Vigilance Clearance." Accordingly, the government advised the employees working under Jammu and Kashmir.
Government to file their property returns for the year 2022, on the PRS-Portal, from the 1st of January up to the 31st of January, 2023.
Further, it is enjoined upon all the DDOS to ensure registration of those employees, who have not yet registered on the PRS Portal, it said, adding, "Besides, ensuring filing of property details by their cent percent employees, within the specified time. The portal will automatically close on January 31."
