*SVO presents only 5 challans in 6 months
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 23: In Jammu and Kashmir, where abuse of power for pecuniary gains has become a deep-rooted menace, the fight against corruption is going on at a snail’s pace despite tall claims from different quarters including those, who have been entrusted with the exclusive duty of minimizing the same if not possible to completely root it out.
This can be gauged from the fact that State Vigilance Organization (SVO), which has been vested with the powers to investigate the cases pertaining to charges of graft against public servants and public men, produced challans in only five FIR cases during six months period.
The performance of SVO is notwithstanding the reality that these days more often bribes are given for getting a right thing done at the right time and less for doing a wrong thing thereby further spreading the tentacles of this menace. Shockingly, the Vigilance Organization is of the belief that corruption cannot be completely rooted out and it can be contained within tolerable limits.
According to a report tabled in the Legislative Assembly today, during the period between July 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014, the Vigilance Organization presented challan in only five FIR cases making a total of 503 cases pending trial in the courts of law.
These five challans have been presented against the officers of Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, Labour and Employment, Roads & Buildings, Revenue and Finance Departments. One case was registered in 2010 while as three others in 2012 and one in 2013.
Not only at the stage of investigation, the disposal of corruption cases by the courts of law after presentation of challans is also not up to the desired level as pendency of trial is also at the alarming level.
Out of 503 cases pending trial in the courts of law, 17 cases were decided between July 2014 to December 2014 and 486 cases are still pending trial. Out of 17 decided cases, 12 ended in acquittal mainly due to shortcomings in the SVO investigations and 5 cases concluded in conviction.
During this period, State Vigilance Organization completed investigation only in 7 FIRs out of which four cases were referred to Government for accord of sanction for prosecution, one was referred for initiation of Regular Departmental Action and 2 cases were closed as not proved.
According to the report, a total of 693 verifications were pending with the Vigilance Organization as on June 30, 2014 and during the period between July 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014, 158 more verifications were received thereby raising the total number to 851. However, during six months period 86 verifications were disposed off as against 158 received during the period thereby increasing the backlog. At present, 765 verifications are yet to be carried out by various branches of the SVO.
Likewise, the number of secret verifications pending with the SVO as on June 30, 2014 was 118 and during the period between July 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014, 49 verifications were instituted. However, during this period 35 secret verifications were disposed off thereby leaving the pendency of 132.
“For the slow pace of investigation into the corruption cases and disposal of the same in the courts Government can be directly held responsible as no manpower of the State Vigilance Organization has been increased in consonance with the volume of work and there was inordinate delay in providing of Prosecution Officers to the newly designated Anti-Corruption Courts”, sources said.
“It is shocking state of affairs that on one side Government admits that corruption hinders and impedes the development process and is a stumbling block in ensuring that fruits of development are equally shared by all the sections of the society and on the other side, anti-corruption mechanism has not been strengthened”, sources regretted.
They said that Governor, N N Vohra in the recent past, while reviewing the functioning of State Vigilance Organization and State Vigilance Commission had recommended to the General Administration Department for taking necessary steps to overcome the deficiencies in Vigilance Organization, which are impeding the investigation process. But whether any exercise was conducted in this regard still remains a mystery.
Follow our WhatsApp channel