news details |
|
|
| Will Omar fulfill his twin new year resolutions? | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
Jammu, Jan 29: Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, has made two new year resolutions. One, he will not allow the 2010 summer violence to be repeated this summer. Secondly the Chief Minister has vowed to catch the "big fish" involved in corrupt practices. During the last 10 days Omar Abdullah has started showing signs of an angry leader determined to deal firmly with those who plan to destabilise peace and with those indulging in corrupt practices. In fact he has succeeded in dealing with the BJYM's Ekta Yatra by preventing the activists of the Sangh Parivar from hoisting the national flag at Lal Chowk. A move that could have triggered violence after a section of separatists, especially the JKLF, announced its plan to counter the tricolour hoisting programme. And Omar did not stop with the stopping of the BJYM and BJP leaders and activists from making it to Srinagar but also ordered the security forces to foil any JKLF plan on Lal Chowk chalo. This way Omar has shown his resolve to deal firmly with those who try to destabilise peace or those who pose threat to the state's security. In the process he has earned the displeasure of both the Sangh parivar and the separatists but as far as people in the Kashmir valley are concerned they seem to be happy with Omar's dealing with the flag hoisting plan of the BJYM and Lal Chowk chalo of the JKLF. Against this majority of the Jammuites have been peeved over the way Omar weighed the JKLF Lal chowk plan in the same scale in which he weighed BJYM's programme of hoisting national flag at Lal Chowk.
Well you cannot please everybody. And when any action has to be initiated it earns both the bricks and the bouquets. This is what has happened to Omar Abdullah who after his success in handling the Lal Chowk chalo programme has plans of waging a war against corruption. He has made a commitment to bring "sharks" under the net of the Vigilance organisation. Will he succeed in his mission of removing the scar of Jammu and Kashmir being the second most corrupt state, after Bihar, in India? Possibilities seem to be remote because corruption has become a national phenomenon. Yes, corrupt practices have gone unnoticed and some of them have been noticed resulting in punishment to the corrupt but the rate of corruption continues to be fight in Jammu and Kashmir and equally the rate of action against the corrupt in the state has been quite minimum. Over the years an impression has gone round that while 10 to 25 per cent of the amount earmarked on development projects is pocketed by the corrupt officials in rest of the country but the rate is as high as 40 to 50 per cent in Jammu and Kashmir. Files in the Government departments do not move unless the officials are bribed. Cases pile up in the Government departments unless the officials receive money for giving wings to the cases.
The problem is Jammu and Kashmir, as far as corruption in Government offices is concerned, is the result of lack of regular monitoring of behind the scene activities of the officials and those engaged or entrusted with the execution of development works. Had there been a system of monitoring the level of allocations and their utilisation one senior officer in the Health Department would have not managed to transfer over Rs. 40 crores, earmarked under the centrally sponsored health programme, into his account. The officer has been suspended but the process has to be initiated not only for recovering the sum of Rs. 40 crores but the interest he had earned on it also. In Jammu and Kashmir there is a wide gap between allocation of funds and their utilisation. On many an occasions the central Government has withheld funds because it had not received utilisation report from the state agencies. Since the allocated funds were not being utilized properly the agencies start manipulation while preparing the utilisation reports. Can it be believable? The state Government spent just over 16 per cent of its current annual plan of Rs. 6,000 crores during the first six months and the utilisation figure rose to over 38 per cent in 10 months of the current financial year. This means the state agencies spent over 22 per cent within four months. This very imbalance between allocations and utilisation breeds corrupt practices. Omar plans to have vigilance officers in each Government department. Not a bad idea. But what guarantee he has on the honesty and integrity of those engaged in acting as a watch dog ?No guarantee. What is the solution? Either instutionalise corruption or hang the corrupt by the lamppost. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
STOCK UPDATE |
|
|
 |
| BSE
Sensex |
 |
| NSE
Nifty |
|
|
| |
CRICKET UPDATE |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
