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| Anti-graft drive in Jammu Kashmir lacks teeth | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Aug 27: Is the National Conference led Government in Jammu and Kashmir serious about containing corruption and corrupt practices? One has doubts about the intentions of the Government as far as antigraft measures are concerned.
Presumably never in the 60 years history of the state any Government has been keen to fight corruption and drown the corrupt in the Dal Lake, a phrase once used by Dr Farooq Abdullah, but unfortunately he could not find any corrupt person who should have been drowned in the Lake.
Yes, if the state experienced a whiff of change as far as anti-graft drive was concerned it was between 1975 and 1977 when Sheikh Abdullah headed the Government after regaining power following the signing of Sheikh-Indira Accord. It was during that brief period that number of corrupt officials, especially some engineers felt the pinch of Sheikh's wrath against corruption. Some of them were suspended others were forced to opt for pre-mature retirement.
Sheikh Abdullah's campaign against corrupt officials sent shivers down the spine of engineers, contractors and other officials to the extent that restaurants, bars and hotels wore deserted look in the evenings because these Government officials dared not spend easy money on hotel delicacies that too under the eye of intelligence sleuths.
However, this campaign lasted for a brief period after Sheikh Abdullah's Government fell when the Congress withdrew its support. And when Sheikh Abdullah regained power after the 1977 Assembly election he was a changed man. He did not want to earn any ire from the people because he had felt he had been deceived by the Congress by withdrawing its support to him. He would dub the Congress withdrawal of support as "a stab in my back."
It seems that the go slow tactics against corrupt practices has become part of governance in Jammu and Kashmir. If one does not agree with this charge one needs to examine the saga of the State Accountability Commission (SAC), which was set up in 2003. First it remained headless for a number of years. Now that the Commission has begun to become functional new problems have cropped up making it impossible to settle the complaints it has received during these years
One would have expected the Commission to act with sharp teeth given to it by amending the Act but it has not been the case. The Government has sent on deputation a number of officers to function as Registrar and Assistant Registrars. But these officers have neither the requisite qualification nor the experience that is required for the job they are supposed to perform. Hence the SAC is yet to make its presence felt.
Secondly the SAC members and officials do not feel comfortable in the dilapidated office building. The Government, strangely enough, has done nothing when the building has been declared unsafe and when its owner has sent a notice to the Government to vacate the building so that he could renovate it.
The NC led Government has got a chance to fight corrupt practices and elements with the SAC but for this it has to restructure the Commission extending to it all possible facilities to its chairman, members and the staff. Once the Government accords respect to the SAC it can be as powerful as Lok Ayukta in other states. |
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