Lucknow, Nov 7 : In highly ill-reputed Uttar Pradesh, four senior officials have voluntarily declared their assets.

Spearheading the campaign was additional cabinet secretary Vijay Shankar Pandey, better known as the crusader who initiated a secret ballot to identify the "three most corrupt IAS officers" in the state way back in 1997.

A bureaucrat of the 1979 batch of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Pandey was joined by his two junior colleagues Renuka Kumar of 1987 batch of IAS and her husband Sunil Kumar from the same batch.

Significantly, the lone IPS officer to display his comraderie with them was Deputy Inspector General (Training) Jasveer Singh, currently attached with the chief minister's information cell. He belongs to the 1992 batch and first shot into the spotlight when he publicly termed feudal lord turned politician Raja Bhaiya as one of "India's Most Wanted".

Both Renuka and Sunil Kumar had recently moved to the central government where they were posted as joint secretary in the company affairs ministry and vice-chairman of Inland Waterways Authority respectively.

Asked about the objective behind the move, Pandey told IANS: "We wish to start this healthy practice which is in the larger interest of ensuring transparency in the bureaucracy that has earned a bad name on account of the increasing indulgence of corrupt practices."

He does expect a number of his colleagues to come forward and follow course.

"We have sent out declarations to the Union Cabinet Secretary, who could urge bureaucrats across the country to volunteer information about all the assets held by them and their immediate families," he added. (IANS)