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| Politician-Contractor mafia impeding development of Jammu and Kashmir | | CAG digs into muck | | Abodh Sharma
Jammu, Aug 29: After pulling Jammu and Kashmir Government for its poor showing in crucial sectors of Power, Roads and School Education, the CAG has now pointed a direct finger on the Ministers and MLAs of the State for impeding the development process in connivance with private contractors and agencies.
In its annual report for 2010-11, the CAG has blamed MLAs and Ministers for pressurising various agencies and their heads to divert the funds in order to please "blue-eyed" contractors and constituencies.
According to the report, "1,301 works had been executed during 2006 and 2011 in R&B without obtaining any administrative approvals which was mandatory for undertaking such works."
The report has accused the department for failing to transform the developmental schemes into public benefit. "The expenditure of Rs 128.28 crore incurred had proved under productive as of March 2011," the report says.
While it is interesting to note that the CAG has made these observations in the Ministries headed by the Chief Minister himself, it has once again exposed the Contractor-Politician nexus that controls the development process in the State and arm wrestles Government agencies into coercion to allocate works to them.
"This is an open secret that all MLAs including the Ministers and MPs have their own battery of contractors who invariably get the works allocated in their favour by the intervention of their political masters," said a retired officer of the department of R&B. "In many cases they are even made payments in advance and the works remain unfinished for years," he added.
Besides getting departmental works in their names, these blue eyed contractors misuse the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) of the legislators and the Ministers for works of little public benefit. It is pertinent to mention here that former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had taken cognizance of this misuse of constituency development fund and even threatened to withdraw CDFs as done in several other States of the country. Ironically Omar Government raised the CDF of the legislators from Rs 75 lakhs to 1 crore and even promised to raise it further in the next fiscal.
Several cases pending before the State Vigilance Organisation corroborate the observations made by the CAG wherein noted blue eyed contractors patronised by the MLAs, Ministers and MPs have been repeatedly allocated important projects despite defaulting on several of them over the years. |
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