everal Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers are reluctant to file annual property returns, a mandatory obligation under the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act.

According to an RTI reply, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has said that only "311 IAS officers have filed online property returns in the prescribed format as mentioned in the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act".

Though the sanctioned strength of the IAS is 6,270, the total number of serving IAS officers in the country is 4,619, as per information provided by the DoPT. That means only about 7% of them have filed their returns.

In July, the DoPT under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, had issued a notification that under the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, every public servant must every year file a declaration, information and annual returns of his assets and liabilities as of 31 March on or before 31 July. However, for the current year, the last date of filing such returns was postponed to 15 September.

The government had introduced the facility of filing the returns online, for which an application named Property Related Information System (PRISM) has been designed.

"If IAS officers themselves do not follow the government's directives, how can they expect others to do so?" asked Sanjay Sharma, the Lucknow-based RTI activist who filed the query.

"Corruption is another aspect of this issue. The fact that they are reluctant to share information about their property hints at possible corruption. Our Prime Minister's USP is good governance. If IAS officers conceal information about their property, how can Narendra Modi's vision of providing good and efficient governance be realised?" Sharma asked.