Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's initiative against corruption seems to be going a long way. On Thursday, details of the assets of nearly 80,000 government officials was made public on the official website of the state government. "These include officers from the Indian Administrative Service, the Indian Police Service, the Indian Foreign Service and the state administration," an official said.

"It's a first for the country," Deepak Kumar, principal secretary of the general administration department, told rediff.com. He said that details of the assets of 80,000 government officials were uploaded on the official website of the state government. "They are now available online," he said.

According to him, nearly 10 days ago, close to 90 per cent of the 4.5 lakh government officials had submitted their asset details to the state government, as per an official directive. The move is being seen as a step towards ending corruption as promised by the chief minister.

To set an example, the chief minister and his cabinet colleagues had declared their assets on December 31 last year, the details of which are also posted on the same website. He added that it would take over a month's time to upload all the details," It's a lot of data – these are details of lakhs of officials."

However, a source said that there are still a few thousand officials who have failed to submit their asset details. This is despite an early circular, which had warned them that their salaries would be withheld, in case they to failed to furnish details within the stipulated time frame.

A senior official in the general administration department said that three IAS officers and five IPS officers were yet to submit their details.