Letters: Politics of transparency

It is heartening to see ministers’ assets being declared on the PMO website. Similarly, all public servants including their close relatives – spouses and family members – must put their wealth and income details on a new website that can be launched for this purpose. Declaration of wealth at the time of filing nomination papers for elections must be scrutinised and certified by the I-T department. When listed companies publish quarterly results, nationalised banks publish annual accounts and when public companies’ documents are open for inspection on the Registrar of Companies portal, then why can’t the wealth and tax returns of politicians be published in newspapers and be made available on the internet?

M Kumar, New Delhi