Ghaziabad: UP govt has held back salaries of at least 130 GDA officials who failed to submit details of their movable and immovable assets on the Manav Sampada portal by the Jan 31 deadline. Officials said the salaries for Jan have been stopped and will remain withheld until the mandatory asset declarations are uploaded. Govt has also signalled that disciplinary action could follow if compliance is not ensured.Including GDA, salaries of more than 68,000 state govt employees from public works, revenue, education, health and social welfare departments have been withheld for not meeting the deadline across UP.According to a GDA official, from 2023, the start govt has made it mandatory for officials to file declaration of assets, movable and immovable, every year on the Manav Sampada portal. “The declarations are to be made within a stipulated time, failing which salary and even promotions could be withheld,” the official said.GDA has over 850 employees whose salaries, totalling over Rs 5 crore, are directly credited into their accounts between the 5th and 7th of every month. The asset declaration is mandatory for all officers and staff, from group A to group D.“There are over 850 employees in GDA, half of whom are supervisors and workmates, and withholding the salaries will affect the morale of employees because many do not come in the higher echelon of the employee structure,” an office bearer of the GDA Employee Union said.When asked about their failure to upload the details, he said, “The process is cumbersome, and not many are tech-savvy, and the asset details are required to be uploaded on the Manav Sampada portal. That could be one reason why many of them could not adhere to the Jan 31 deadline.”Officials said that the state govt had launched the Manav Sampada Portal in 2024 with an intent to instil transparency in administrative procedures. The focus is primarily on bringing the activities of employees and officials from 74 public departments across the state into the public domain. The state govt is of the view that this will bring accountability towards the public and the govt, and will also go a long way in dealing with the issue of corruption in govt offices, officials said.
