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| Azad picks academic line on corruption | | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | Feb 16
After all the fuss of allegations and counter-allegations, the war against corruption and the talk of transparency today saw an academic approach.
The public men consequence, top anti-corruption crusaders and the officials associated with the anti-corruption bodies participated in a daylong deliberations organized by the Indian Institute of Public Administration in collaboration with the State Vigilance Organisation.
Instead of sharing statistics, as he would do at any public occasion, the Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who delivered the valedictory address, too oriented his speech in an academic tone.
He said that the responsible governance is an attitude of mind and an ideological commitment the fundamental principle of which is a continuous, systematic and comprehensive interface of popular expectations with the delivery mechanisms of government.
Azad said that in the democratically run societies and nations, the importance of a people oriented and responsive governance cannot be over emphasized. He said certainly good governance is a legitimate expectation of citizens in a dynamic democratic polity. He said "it must ensure an enabling ambience within which people can function to meet their needs for themselves with such interventions from the government as may be necessary". He said a responsive administration presupposes greater openness and transparency in its functioning and informed public participation by the citizenry in achieving constitutional goals. He said to ensure transparency in governance the State Right to Information Act will be appropriately amended to make it identical to the Central Act.
The Chief Minister said the focus of the government has been on introducing systematic changes and healthy work culture.
He said that timely completion of the projects without any compromise on quality is a challenge which can be achieved by good governance only. The time bound completion of works makes it possible to avoid time and cost over run.
The Chief Minister said that to improve overall governance in the State, a comprehensive scheme of incentives and disincentives has been introduced for the government officials who are the key players in the system. He said Chief Minister's Gold Medal with a cash reward of Rs. 1 lakh and a certificate is given for honesty, integrity and efficiency and rewards are also being introduced for honest and efficient contractors and engineers for timely completion of projects while maintaining quality. Similarly, Chief Minister's medal for whistle blowers is also being given to discourage malpractices and corruption. He said anti-corruption law in the State has been strengthened under which ill-gotten property of proven corrupt officials is confiscated. He said during the last five years a number of steps have been taken to curb corruption and in the last two years the percentage of proven cases has gone up to over 90%. He said all these decisions have sent a right signal across the state.
The Chief Minister said "we plan to appoint special session judges one each for Srinagar and Jammu to expedite the trial of corruption cases. He said while we are modernizing our police force and strengthened the State Human Rights Commission, we have simultaneously launched massive infrastructure building programme in all sectors to provide better infrastructure and public utility services.
The Chief Minister desired that a similar function be organized in Srinagar this summer and extended invitation to the Central Vigilance Commissioner for participation.
Central Vigilance Commissioner Mr. Pratyush Sinha in his valedictory address gave historical background of the concept of vigilance and emphasized the role of vigilance as a tool of management. Tracing the evolution of the concept of vigilance, he said that vigilance was not looked at in the narrow sense of fighting corruption but as a tool of managing the affairs of the government. He said without effective vigilance the concept of responsive governance gets reduced to a slogan only. |
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