* ‘Defaulters’ guilty of misconduct under PCA
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 11: In blatant violation of the provisions of Jammu and Kashmir Public Men and Public Servants Declaration of Assets and Other Provisions Act, 214 KAS officers including Deputy Commissioners, Special Secretaries, Directors, Additional Deputy Commissioners, Sub-Divisional Magistrates and Deputy Secretaries have not submitted the Annual Property Returns for the year 2013.
The flouting of provisions by such a large number of KAS officers has been viewed very seriously by the General Administration Department, which has directed these defaulting members of the Kashmir Administrative Services to furnish the Annual Property Returns by or before May 20, 2014.
In terms of Sub-Section 2 of Section 9 of the Jammu and Kashmir Public Men and Public Servants Declaration of Assets and Other Provisions Act, 1983, every public servant is required to submit to the prescribed authority Annual Returns of the assets held by him/her and his/her family members in the month of January every year, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
“The public servants are also required to state reasons for increase, if any, in the assets and source thereof”, they further said, adding “in terms of Rule 3 of the J&K Public Servants Declaration of Assets and Other Provisions Rules, 1998, the Annual Property Returns are required to be submitted on the prescribed performa in respect of all the assets possessed by them and their family members which shall include the assets in respect of movable property, the value of which exceeds Rs 20,000”.
However, 214 KAS officers have not adhered to the provisions of J&K Public Servants Declaration of Assets Act, the last date for which was January 31, 2014, they said. The General Administration Department, which is the prescribed authority in case of KAS officers, recently observed that even after lapse of two months—February and March such a large number of officers continue to flout the provisions of the Act and were not coming forward voluntarily for submission of the Annual Property Returns”, sources informed.
Taking serious note of this, the GAD has issued notice to all these 214 KAS officers advising them to furnish the Annual Property Returns for the year 2013 to the General Administration (Vigilance) by or before May 20, 2014, sources said.
However, the GAD has not mentioned anything about the penalty for non-submission of returns despite the fact that Section 11 of the J&K Public Men and Public Servants Declaration of Assets and Other Provisions Act, 1983 clearly states that if any public servant without any reasonable cause, which he/she shall be required to show, fails to submit the return annually, he/she shall be guilty of committing criminal misconduct as specified in Clause (e) of the Sub-Section (1) of Section 5 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 2006 and shall be punishable under the Act, sources further said.
Among the senior ranking defaulting officers are Deputy Commissioners (heads of the districts and Deputy Commissioners of Relief Organization and Commercial Taxes), Directors of different departments, Additional Deputy Commissioners, Additional District Development Commissioners, Special Secretaries, Joint Directors, Deputy Secretaries, Project Officers, Deputy Directors, General Managers, Assistant Commissioners and Sub-Divisional Magistrates.
The defaulting Deputy Commissioners (heads of the districts) are Manzoor Ahmad Lone (Pulwama), Bashir Ahmad Bhat (Shopian), Mohammad Hussain Malik (Ramban), Mohammad Javed Khan (Kishtwar), Sarmad Hafeez (Ganderbal), Jahangir Mir (Kulgam), Farooq Ahmad Lone (Baramulla) and Itrat Hussain Rafiqi (Kupwara).
Similarly, the defaulting Secretaries and Special Secretaries are Kamla Devi (Special Secy Cooperative Department), Mohammad Tariq (Secretary Backward Classes Commission), Vijay Kumari Kotwal (Special Secretary, Technical Education and Youth Services), Gazanffer Ali (Secretary State Information Commission), Majid Khalil Ahmad (Special Secretary Tourism and Culture) and Abdul Hamid (Secretary SERC).
The defaulting Directors are Gulzar Ahmad Qureshi (Industries and Commerce Department), Kuldip Lal Khajuria (Urban Local Bodies, Jammu), Ali Raza (Tribal Affairs), Shabir Ahmad Bhat (Command Area Development, Jammu), Dr Abdul Rashid (Employment Department), Sheikh Fayaz Ahmad (Estates Department), G S Chib (CAPD Jammu), Showket Ahmad Beigh (Area Planning), Talat Parvez (Tourism Kashmir), Atta Ur Natnoo (Libraries), Nisar Hussain Wani (Social Welfare Kashmir) and Rubeena Kounser (Land Management, Srinagar Development Authority).
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