IFS officers’ assets made public; Hardeep Puri owns house in West End, Meera Shankar in Commonwealth Games Village

Indian Diplomats in New Delhi (File photo)

INDIAN Foreign Service (IFS) personnel barring a few made their property details in public by May 27, 2011 paving the way for a more transparent regime and a public scrutiny. Among top diplomats whose list of immovable properties was placed in the Ministry of External Affairs’ website by Friday evening include foreign secretary Nirupama Rao, India’s ambassador to US Meera Shankar, India’s ambassador to Japan Alok Prasad, Permanent Representative of India to UN Hardeep Puri, India’s high commissioner to UK Nalin Surie, Secretary (West) Vivek Katju just to name a few.

According to the declaration, Permanent Representative of India in United Nations Hardeep Puri bought a house in New Delhi’s posh West End area in 2005 which costs him Rs 2.5 crore. Puri also mentioned that he sourced the money from the sale of his previous house added with Rs 1 crore loan from HSBC. Now, his West End house gives him a net income of Rs 30 lakh per annum, the declaration adds.

India’s ambassador to US Meera Shankar and her husband Ajay Shankar (ex-DIPP secretary) jointly own a Rs 2.85 crore flat in the newly constructed Commonwealth Games Village in New Delhi. They are yet to get the possession of the flat. The declaration has further mentioned that they managed that amount from the sale of their Gurgaon house and joint personnel savings.

India’s high commissioner in London Nalin Surie and his wife have a two-room DDA flat in New Delhi’s Vasant Vihar area and a residential plot of 420 sq metres in Gurgaon, both of which were purchased in 1980s. His flat now gives him a monthly rent of over Rs 20,000.

Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao’s Gurgaon flat was bought in 2003 for Rs 25 lakh and she has no idea how much is the market value of that property now, the declaration says. Secretary (West) Vivek Katju’s IFS apartment flat in Gurgaon now gives him a rent of Rs 1,80,000 annually. According to his estimates, the market value of the flat now is Rs 60 lakh.