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Can't J&K have laws to protect privileges of its citizens?
3/10/2012 12:30:34 AM
early times report
Jammu, Mar 9: In a significant development Harsh Dev Singh NPP MLA and leader of Panthers Legislature party today moved a Privilege Motion against Minister for Labour and Employment A G Malik for misleading, deceptive and incomplete reply furnished by him in response to un-starred AQ No 36 in legislative Assembly.
Singh pointed out in the written Privilege petition filed before the speaker that the reply given by the Minister was misleading, contradictory besides being evasive and there was deliberate intent on the point of Minister to conceal vital information from the House.
It is one an irony of our democratic system that when the privilege of a legislator to know the truth is breached the legislator can always take recourse to a breach of privilege motion to seek action for a minister for providing an incomplete reply to his query, but when the privilege of a citizen of democracy is breached the citizen does not have the right to move a breach of privilege against the minister.
Ministers often make promises to the public in open fora and then conveniently forget to fulfill their promises. Nobody among the general public enjoys the right to seek action for non-fulfilment of promises.
Elucidating on the subject, Harsh Dev Singh pointed out in the written notice that the Minister by virtue of his reply in un-starred AQ no 36 of current session had contradicted his own Statements made in response to starred AQ no. 67 of Sept-Oct session.
Singh said that he had sought information from the Minister regarding the total appointments made in the State in class IV category from 2009 onwards alongwith the District-wise breakup of the same, and also the procedure followed for the purpose. He lamented that the Minister had mentioned different and contradictory figures in the two replies besides concealing vital information from the House. Giving specific details, Singh said that in reply to Starred AQ no 67 given earlier, the Minister concerned had made a motion of 3530 appointments having been made in class IV category in the State. Again, in un-starred AQ 36 he said the total number of appointments is 3530 but declined to divulge the details of procedure adopted and deliberately avoided the details sought regarding issuance of advertisement notifications; number and date of said notifications; names of newspapers publishing the said notification etc.
Harsh Dev Singh further pointed out that in Starred AQ no 67, the Minister mentioned that 209 appointments of class IV have been made in Power Dev. Deptt. But in un-starred AQ 36, he stated that the available vacancies have been reserved for conversion of PDD daily wagers and for compassionate appointments thereby concealing and mis-representing the facts. Likewise, Starred AQ 67states the number of class IV appointments in Home Deptt. having been made as 661, whereas, in the un-starred AQ 36 the said information has been withheld and the said AQ remains silent. Likewise in starred AQ 67, the number of appointments in Revenue has been shown as 132 but in un-starred AQ 36, it is stated that the number of appointments is 484, he said.
In the same way, the number of appointments in CAPD as per Starred AQ 67 was 36, whereas the un-starred AQ 36 indicates the number as 575. In Agriculture Deptt. also the number of appointments is 318 in starred AQ 67 and 474 in Un-starred AQ 36. Similarly, the number of appointments made in Labour and Employment as per Starred AQ no 67 is 8 but in un-starred AQ 36, it is said that the vacancies are 51 and shall be filled up later.
The actual number of appointments made has been concealed with a view to mislead the House. In co-operations, Starred AQ 67 says that 33 appointments of class IV have been made but Un-starred AQ 36 shows the number of appointments as 55. And all this notwithstanding, the fact that the total number of appointments in both the AQs remains the same.
Apprising the Hon'ble Speaker about the contradictory, misleading and incomplete information given by the Minister for Labour and Employment, Singh sought directive for furnishing of complete details and also initiation of proceedings against the Minister for deliberate concealment of information, mis-representation and for false, mis-leading and contradictory replies.
In a related development of the same nature, on March 1st, National Panthers Party president and MLA, Balwant Singh Mankotia also moved a breach of privilege motion against the state Revenue department for furnishing wrong information to the house.
Hon'ble speaker of the legislative assembly Mohd Akbar Lone said strict action would be taken against the erring official and directed the secretary of the assembly to ask the concerned official to furnish reply in this regard.
A serious question brooks answer in light of these two breach of privilege motions moved by the legislators. The legislators have clear constitution remedies to seek whenever they feel their privileges have been breached, but the common man whose rights and privileges are breached day in and day out has nowhere to go. It is time our law makers and the authorities concerned with public welfare realized that the breach of privileges of an ordinary citizen in a democratic system deserve same deterrent treatment as does the breach of privileges of our honoured legislators. Would the state government take a historic step forward and declare a democratic procedure for the protection of the privileges of ordinary citizens on the lines the privileges of the people's representatives are protected?
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