|
|
EDITORIAL With some recent challans, the Vigilance finally seems to have begun its much awaited action against the corruption, though with a short list for the long wait. It goes without saying that corruption is rampant here. There is hardly an office, an officer, factotums or subordiantes who are not tainted with allegations loud or whispered. For some time past, wide allegations against some of the ministers too have been heard and not in whispers at all. Professor Bhim Singh stated it in an open address to media sometime back. He may have his own axes to grind, pressures to mount, but.....more It is rather strange that the authorities should have ordered another 'summary revision' of the electoral rolls instead of preparing new voter lists. Even last year, an overhaul of the electoral rolls was contemplated but was given up in view of the paucity of time before the elections which were then due in six or eight months. Today the elections are nowhere in view. The authorities have enough time on their hands. What is even more important is that the electoral rolls have grown thoroughly outdated. The list had been prepared in the mid eighties,.....more |
 |
By Joginder Singh The Transparency International ranks several countries in the world including India, on the basis of corruption perception index prepared by it. The World Bank had observed in the year 2000 that the Delhi Development Authority ..more Is
PM preparing the By K.N. Pandita In his public speech in Srinagar, Prime Minister Vajpayee suddenly declared Government of India’s willingness to hold talks with Pakistan on various matters including Kashmir. This came as a surprise because India had been ...more By N.B. Menon Everybody knows about the two Kashmirs: One is the Jammu and Kashmir state which is an integral part of the Indian Union where Pakistan has been waging a proxy war; the second Kashimir is the Pakistan Occupied part of Kashmir, known as PoK. Buty there is also the third Kashmir – ......more |
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
EDITORIAL With some recent challans, the Vigilance finally seems to have begun its much awaited action against the corruption, though with a short list for the long wait. It goes without saying that corruption is rampant here. There is hardly an office, an officer, factotums or subordiantes who are not tainted with allegations loud or whispered. For some time past, wide allegations against some of the ministers too have been heard and not in whispers at all. Professor Bhim Singh stated it in an open address to media sometime back. He may have his own axes to grind, pressures to mount, but the important point is that the allegations are there, and apparently material enough. From transfers and postings that are not entirely above broad, to the long queues of subordinates that the new ministers have trailing them, there are indications that the 'clean people' have gathered moss in the short span of six months. One wonders if the Chief Minister has these founts in view when he talks of institutionalizing the war on corruption. Then, there are other categories of corruption that are not normally seen. The revelations of one finance company director, before the highest judicial authorities of the State, put a wide range of social eminences under dark clouds of doubt. The first thing that stuns the mind is how big the Lakhs and Crores can get and where they come from. These are risque investments, not the secure deposits that people generally make. Normally they are made when there are overflowing monies; where they come from is any body's guess. Going by the near-speculation risks, one would say that this State was overflowing with developmental activity, with funds and a vibrancy which somehow is not there. These local 'Swiss-accounts' should be red herrings to the economic sleuths, but there are no sleuths there, no economic investigators. For, this is a 'poor' State and, as the Chief Minister says, still in the process of laying institutional framework for tackling things of this sort. The petty patwaris that the vigilance is wont to book are fingerlings compared to this scale of funds. They, however, may all be valid and above broad investments, having been deposited with the firm for earning a quick buck, but has anybody ever thought of inquiring? Indeed, there is a general laxity in respect of the instruments to detect corruption. The vigilance organization, at least in its earlier incarnations, is known to get selective if not slanted. But how selective can you get when the corruption and corrupt practices are all around us? We are still far from having vigilance of the order that caught the top brass of DDA, Punjab judges and finally the PA of a Union Minister recently after months of watch, phone-tapings and the like. Yet it is that type of vigilance, and not the selective investigations that never get very far, which can help us. Else it is all tinkering with the giant of corruption. Here watching over the vigilance itself, as the Chief Minister has hinted is equally important, probably, more so. Thorough, unstrained inquiries are simply indispensible. And, should not cover the petty employees alone. It is rather strange that the authorities should have ordered another 'summary revision' of the electoral rolls instead of preparing new voter lists. Even last year, an overhaul of the electoral rolls was contemplated but was given up in view of the paucity of time before the elections which were then due in six or eight months. Today the elections are nowhere in view. The authorities have enough time on their hands. What is even more important is that the electoral rolls have grown thoroughly outdated. The list had been prepared in the mid eighties, nearly two decades ago. The people who were born at that time have now become eligible for voting! Then there are the dead of the twenty years to discount, the births to count, the displacements of two decades and some of the huge upheavals that this State saw during this time to account for. Plainly the voter lists are long overdue for a thorough overhaul which cannot be done by summary revisions. Indeed, these and other relevant points have been raised in these columns and other places too many a time. At election after elections, for at least two assembly and three parliamentary elections, people have pointed out the gross distortions, deletions and deviations in these lists. During this period one census was skipped and another was completed. Villages which existed then may have disappeared or grown into handsome towns. The towns of those days are in the process of becoming citiy-big while the cities have crossed the million-mark. The shape, profile and structure of the constituencies have under gone drastic changes. A summary revision, calling for inclusions and deletions would simply not help to make the rolls usable. Those who have used these rolls during the last elections are aware how inaccurate they are. And none knows it better than the State Election Commission. Yet it has chosen not to get the voter lists prepared afresh! The commission, more than anybody else, knows that the tinker-some revision would create more problems than it would solve. And it just is not the done thing. So why it is being done when the commission has time and resource to renew them beats reason. |
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
