Early Times Report
Jammu, Dec 27: The Jammu and Kashmir Government Secretariat presents the look of a paper dumping yard. Thousands of files lie piled up everywhere on chairs, tables and everywhere there is some space.
However, for speedy disposal of files, the hapless people of the State better shift to Chief Minister's constituency. According to sources, complaints filed to get works done under the Public Grievances Cell have been addressed more quickly than in other districts of state. Even in Jammu, the cases are pending in large numbers.
These pending cases fall under the category of 'cases delayed by 30 days', the maximum time specified to deliver service in any category under the Public Grievances Cell guidelines. The scene looks worse in Civil Secretariat where more than one lakh files are gathering dust. The problem is of such a magnitude that even files marked as "emergency" are being added to this pile and conveniently ignored.
A combination of various reasons is being cited for this State of paralysis. The Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and other Ministers were busy with campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections and visiting Delhi, Goa for collecting awards of good governance. A good number of senior IAS officers are on leave and many KAS officers have gone for trainings. By one estimate, only these pending files will take over one and a half month to be cleared.
PDP President Mehbooba Mufti alleged that over 1 lakh files are pending with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. She said that the administration in the Jammu and Kashmir State has come to a halt due to the Omar's style of functioning.
Stating that about one lakh files were pending with the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister's office, she demanded that Omar Abdullah responded to the pending files immediately. Holding the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his Advisor responsible for the pending files, she said that she suspected that other departments, too, function the same way.
Asking the State Government to provide an explanation over the pending files, she urged Omar Abdullah to take action against officials responsible for the delay in clearing the files. According to the sources placed in the Chief Minister’s office it has received 20,000 files since January 2011 and cleared 12,000 files so far.
A Congress Minister of the Omar's Government said "Some Ministers and officials in the CMO and other departments keep files pending. For what reasons, I don't know. May be they want to study those files. I give priority to getting work done than protecting my image."
However, officials of various departments in the districts across the State are yet to get their act together despite Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's directive to the district administration on clearance of pending files. Very few cases, which needed to be addressed to by higher officials and some needing additional financial sanctions have been cleared. But, in a majority of the cases, according to a senior bureaucrat, the lethargic attitude of the section heads in various departments is the reason for the undue delay.
The number of pending files in Jammu district has crossed the 20,000 mark and it is expected to increase more. Hundreds of grievances are still pouring in from various parts of the district. According to the information available, as many as 20,000 files were pending in various departments, in Jammu district alone. Officials of the District Development Commissioner Jammu District have admitted that they had cleared nearly 10,000 files during the last two months, with which the number of pending files had come down to 10,000 from 20,000. Many departments are left way behind as nearly 12 departments have piled up nearly 15,000 files.
The District Development Commissioner Ramban is credited with highest number of pending files with more than 25,000 files this year. However, the Secretariat wore a completely deserted look every day. Quite possibly, the people too have given up hope on getting any file moved through this paralysed administration headed by the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. |
