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| J&K puts gag on anonymous complaints, bars departments from taking action | | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
JAMMU, Aug 1: Virtually putting a gag order on filing complaints, State Government has asked administrative heads of the autonomous bodies and various Government departments not to entertain anonymous complaints.
General Administration Department (GAD) issued a circular no. 29 -GAD (Vig) of 2014, Dated 31-07-2014 lying down detailed procedure for handling anonymous or pseudonymous complaints in the Government departments as well as autonomous bodies. According to this circular, departments have been asked not to take any action on anonymous complaint irrespective of the nature of allegations.
GAD has asked the departments not to take the allegations seriously even if it means abandoning a well-documented and self-speaking complaint. They have been asked to simply file these complaints. GAD has further told the departments that complaints containing vague allegations against officials or Ministers should also be filed without verification of identity of the complainant.
Without referring to mechanism for checking authenticity of allegations in a complaint, General Administration Department (GAD) has said that if the complaint contains verifiable allegations, administrative Department may take cognizance of such complaint with the approval of the competent authorities to be designated by the department, thus keeping the space open for officers at various levels to decide about complaints according to their own whims and fancies.
To make even this tougher, GAD has said that even the verifiable complaint should be first sent to the complainant for owning or downing. If no response is received from complainant within 15 days of sending the complaint, GAD has asked the department to send a reminder to the complainant after waiting for 15 days. It has been further said that after waiting for 15 days of having sent the reminder, if still nothing is heard, the complaint should be filed as pseudonymous.
GAD has taken cue from a similar circular issued by Ministry of Personnel and Public Grievances and Pensions (Department of Personnel & Training) vide office memorandum no.104/76/2011-AVD.I, Dated 18-10-2013 but has preferred to keep aside the spirit of this circular issued by the Union Ministry. GAD's order is half-baked and aimed at putting gag on anonymous complaints which have often helped Government in preventing corrupt practices and nepotism.
Union Government issued this circular while taking into account the fact that complainants who desire to protect their identity now have protection of the Public Interest Disclosure Protection of Informers' Resolution - 2004 (PIDPI). Through this resolution, Union Government has created a mechanism for handling complaints where identity of the complainant is kept secret and complainant is provided protection.
This has been endorsed and operationalized by almost all the departments of the Central Government with the approval of the competent authority. In J&K, Government has created mechanism for preventing identity of the complainant but it is neither fool-proof nor sufficient to keep the complainant safe. According to officials, in most of the cases, identity of the complainant is revealed to the accused by the department itself within days of receiving the complaint.
A retired official said that through this circular, State Government has virtually created a mechanism to ensure complainants against top bureaucrats and Ministers are identified. "Most of the anonymous complaints are false and frivolous. But in certain cases, anonymous complaints have helped a lot. So, a mechanism needs to be created for ensuring that officials do not waste their time over frivolous complaints but then, it could have done without touching the identity of the complainant," said the official. |
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