Abodh Sharma
Early Times Report
Jammu, Feb 19: State Vigilance Organization, which is one of the premier anti graft agencies of the state, has failed to live up to the expectations of the people as thousands of cases of corruption and misappropriation of public money against government officers and private individuals are pending before it and those accused of serious charges have escaped any action shaking peoples' faith in natural justice.
Documents in possession of ET reveal that in the last five years, from 2009 to 2013, over 8372 cases of corruption against officers of various government departments besides private persons are pending before State Vigilance Organization and those accused in these cases have not only escaped any action, they have rather been rewarded with promotions and lucrative postings by the NC-Congress coalition Government that was in power during this period. This was the time, when former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was projecting himself as crusader against corruption; anti graft organizations were rating J&K as the most corrupt state of the country.
According to the documents, maximum 1525 cases are pending against Revenue Department, of which 284 were registered during 2009, 202 during 2010, 259 during 2011, 464 during 2012 and 316 during 2013. Revenue department is followed by Education department, which has 1194 cases pending before SVO, of which 256 were registered in 2009, 213 in 2010, 186 in 2011, 200 in 2012, and 220 in 2013. The other departments which have maximum pending cases include Rural Development department 823, Police 517, Social Welfare Department 431, Department of Health and Medical Education 394, Public Health Engineering 392, Public Works Department 393, Forest department 431, Municipality 310, Power Development Department 258 and CAPD 198. Interestingly, 209 cases are pending against private persons in the list of 69 different departments, corporations and other entities.
An officer in the State Vigilance Organization pleading anonymity rued that in most of these cases, the government had not granted permission to prosecute the accused persons. "In many cases, General Administration Department has been approached repeatedly for according sanction to prosecute the accused, but it was never granted, impelling the SVO to shelf the cases" he said, adding that SVO also has shortage of staff to conduct investigations and that is another reasons of huge pendency.
Sources divulge that GAD, the department that works directly under the Chief Minister had lost credibility and trust of the people as many officers/ officials have not been posted out for decades. "There are officers who have spent their entire service careers in GAD and vested interests are bound to breed in such circumstances" he said. |
