early times report
Jammu, Dec 18: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president, Mehbooba Mufti has said the anti-corruption claims by the state government are patently phoney in view of its track-record of protecting the corrupt and systematically disempowering the institutions of transparency, meant to bring about probity in the public life.
Addressing a public meeting at Thanamandi in Rajouri constituency, she said corruption has in the state received patronage from the highest political authority, which is obvious from the death of Haji Yousuf in highly dubious circumstances and refusal of the government to even investigate it.
Mehbooba said the government is resorting to patent lies by claiming that it had brought in either the State Accountability Commission (SAC) or the Right to Information Act. The accountability body was established in 2003, as one of the first acts by the then government under a supreme court judge, while Jammu &Kashmir enacted RTI Act as a law in 2004, when even the Govt of India was still to do it, she said.
She said there are enough institutions and laws to tackle white collar crime, but it is the lack of political will and direction in the present government that has resulted in making corruption and bribery a norm rather than an exception.
The present government has made the SAC and State Information Commission (SIC) virtually dysfunctional, by denying them the staff assistance. The Chief Minister himself went against the SAC's jurisdiction over his appointment of advisors, she said and added "if there was any legal infirmity in the law, the Chief Minister should have come to the legislature to rectify it, rather than use it for saving his skin."
She said Omar Abdullah by this Act brought the functioning of SAC to a grinding halt, with the result it has not been able to proceed on any complaints against the ministers and ruling politicians.
She said the Haji Yousuf episode did not cost only a life which remains unaccounted, but it heavily dented the prestige and moral authority of the Chief Minister, who should have been seen above board in order to enforce probity on his colleagues and administration.
She said it is a matter of record that a minister, whose foster son was caught indulging in malpractices in his examination, questioned Chief Minister's moral authority to call for his resignation.
On the other hand all the ministers, who came into notice for their corrupt practices like promoting interests of their relations, grabbing state land, owning palatial houses in and outside the state even abroad, fake drug scam, PHE scam etc. , continue to be in office, said Mehbooba.
She added that these ministers, as a consequence of the immunity against law, are now running their departments as independent empires rather than behaving as ministers, accountable for their actions.
Mehbooba said the disregard for law in case of the high and mighty became obvious in the Cricket scam, as well, in which the Union Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, as president of the state Cricket Association, was accused of having drawn cheques from unauthorised accounts, money that was straight away stolen as was established by the documentary available in public domain.
"While everybody in the world is in know of the incontrovertible evidence against Dr Abdullah, only the police doesn't see it because it is controlled by his son" said Mehbooba. She said people who should have been in jail elsewhere in the country like A Raja and Kalmadi, in J&K they are running the government and sermonizing against corruption.
The PDP president said the claim that people have been empowered to fight corruption is not misleading but sinister, as well. The present govt has enacted rules in a manner that a private person has first to prove a case against a guilty person and only then the Accountability Commission can take note of that.
"Is it the private people who have to investigate the cases and find evidence?" she asked.
Senior party leaders Yashpal Shrama, Chaudary Zulfkar Ali, Barat Bushan Gupta, Abdul Qayoom Dar, Abdul Hamid Manhas, local leaders Shahzad Khan, Chaudary Qamar Din Hussain, Asad Bari Shah, Shah Mohammad Tantray, Ehsan Mirza, Ashok Sharma, Vimal Shama, Anjum Mirza, Shil Lone, Tazeem Dar, Majeed Shah, Shaida Akhtar , Sohan Singh Sohni and Master Prem Chand, were also present and spoke on the occasion.
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