news details |
|
|
| Who's paying for PR ads of Omar's Life Banao Ministers? | | BIG misuse of J&K tax-payers' money! | |
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Nov 17: They are promoting themselves, as well as the business of Reliance Communication in Kashmir, but who is paying for the advertisement campaigns of Omar Abdullah's 'life banao ministers' to 92.7 FM? While the Department of Information maintains that Government could sponsor only the campaigns promoting its image, programmes or initiatives, Naazirs of respective Ministers insist that discretionary grants supposed to be distributed among widows, orphans and other destitute are being squandered on directions of the members of the Cabinet. Be it a religious festival or any other event---even no occasion at all--- youngsters' craze FM 92.7 is deluged with 'Greetings' from Ministers, and now self-promoting government officials, in their own voice. Young politicians of the ruling National Conference (NC), Salman Sagar (former Mayor of Srinagar Municipal Corporation) and Aga Ruhullah (Minister of Animal Husbandry), both around 30 years of age, are said to be the biggest contributors of Anil Ambani's broadcasting venture in the Valley. Energetic, but equally careerist, Director of Tourism, Farooq Shah, his junior boss and Chief Ministers' alter ego, Nasir Sogami, have now comfortably taken over Sagar and Ruhullah in this brazenly operational campaign of self-promotion. Department of Tourism, that claims to be burning 10 litres of POL on every day of shutdown and curfew on a motorboat anchored on The Jhelum, behind Grindlays Bank building on the Bund, is understood to have paid huge amounts of money to the private broadcaster on account of promoting tourism at over a dozen spots in the last five months of complete shutdown in Valley. Valley had witnessed total exodus of its flourishing tourist concentration with the beginning of the anarchic turmoil in June-July. Over a dozen new Heads of Departments HoDs have been lately discovered the craft of self-promotion through non-official electronic media while emptying their public money coffers without the knowledge of the state Finance and Planning departments. Listeners in Srinagar have grown familiar to their radio voice as these 'public servants' not only promote themselves in order to impress the government and retain prize postings for years together but also the Reliance business with the company's popular slogan: "Suno Sunao, Life Banao". Commissioner-Secretaries of Finance and Planning departments, namely Sudhanshu Pandey and Khursheed Ahmed Ganai, could not be reached for their comments. However, sources believed to be pretty informed revealed to Early Times that 12 to 16 HoDs had been misappropriating huge amounts of money on their own promotion, including their New Year and Eid greetings to the Valley's urban listeners. "Half of this money, if spent to educate the youth about hazards of academic and economic breakdown, could have been a service to the nation. Ministers and Government officials, who were previously obsessed with promoting themselves through lavishly printed greeting cards, are now spending sizable amounts of the hapless taxpayers' money on their self-promotion through private broadcast media", an insider disclosed. He asserted that rates being paid to FM 92.7 were at the sweet will of Reliance Communication and never approved by the competent authority---Departments of Finance and Planning in Civil Secretariat. Slots are being repeated every five, ten or fifteen minutes and no tariff has been ever approved by Department of Information. Senior officials in Department of Information maintained that the payment was being made to the private broadcaster without knowledge and approval of the competent authority. They insisted that as many as four repeatedly issued circulars from Chief Secretary had imposed blanket ban on supplying the government advertisements directly to the media organizations as also on making payments to the clients without approval and information of the Department of Information. Naazirs (cashiers) servicing the expenditure of at least three Cabinet Ministers and two Ministers of State revealed that the public men (Ministers) and public servants (officers) were directly dealing with the private broadcaster and making huge payments on account of their purely private and individual radio campaigns. "These are brazen violations of the financial code and audit objections but their advantage is that none in the government cares about CAG reports in J&K even as one of these this week has not only forced exit of the high profile Minister of Telecommunication, A Raja, but also led to raising of unprecedented questions by Supreme Court of India over Prime Minister's "continued silence", said a senior KAS official who lamented that "Backdoor Entrants Association" (blue-eyed boys of influential politicians and bureaucrats) had ruined initially clean image of Omar Abdullah government. "Government's failure to appoint Chairmen and members for the chronically dysfunctional State Accountability Commission (SAC) and State Information Commission (SIC), besides lackadaisical attitude in pursuing matters against corrupt officials and initiating action against the smart self-promoters and corrupt officers holding senior positions and prize postings in the administration are themselves big statements encouraging non-accountability among the public men and public servants", a former judge of J&K High Court observed. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
STOCK UPDATE |
|
|
 |
| BSE
Sensex |
 |
| NSE
Nifty |
|
|
| |
CRICKET UPDATE |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
