PC tells IPS officers to submit property returns immediately

"The IPS cadre has a strength of 3,325 officers. Of these, property returns for the year 2011 of 550 officers have not yet been received by Ministry of Home Affairs, although the due date of January 31, 2012 is long over," Chidambaram told reporters during his monthly press conference.

He said the state governments concerned had been requested to secure the property returns of these officers.

"In some cases, the officer concerned has informed the MHA that he or she had already submitted his or her return to the state government and it is the state government which had apparently failed to forward the returns to the central government.

"Hence, the MHA is advising the officers through an announcement on the website that if they had already submitted their returns to the state government, and yet their names appear in the defaulting officers' list, the officer concerned should submit a copy directly to the central government," the Home Minister said, adding that all IPS officers who have not submitted their property returns "should do so immediately".

According to All India Service Rules, every member of the IPS shall submit his or her return of the property by January 31 every year in respect of the previous year.

Several senior officers, including in CBI, have failed to submit their IPRs for 2011.