*Identity of erring officers yet to be established
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Nov 15: All those officers and officials who had blatantly abused the much-talked about Roshni Scheme in order to confer undue benefits upon illegal occupants of the State land, have remained unpunished till date as State Vigilance Organization (SVO) has failed to present challan in any of the FIRs registered in multi-crore land scam during the past one and half year. Even in the proved cases, action could not be taken because of inordinate delay in accord of sanction to prosecute the erring Government servants, which indicates that efforts are still on to save those Government servants who caused huge loss to the State exchequer.
In the multi-crore Roshni scam, which was unearthed by the Principal Accountant General (Audit) J&K, five FIRs were registered by the State Vigilance Organization on May 29, 2014. At that time it was stated that investigation into these cases would be completed as expeditiously as possible so as to identify the erring officers and officials and punish them under law. Thereafter, some more FIRs were registered in the scam and process of obtaining relevant record from the Deputy Commissioners and its scrutiny was set into motion.
However, State Vigilance Organization has failed to take even one FIR to its logical conclusion despite the lapse of one and half year and the fact that in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) titled Prof S K Bhalla Versus State of J&K and Others the State High Court was informed on numerous occasions that efforts were on to conclude the investigations in the FIRs on priority basis.
The inordinate delay in completion of probe into the FIRs is notwithstanding the fact that the State High Court has a number of times expressed serious concern and displeasure over the way the State Vigilance Organization is handling the scam. Now, in latest status report submitted to the High Court in compliance to order dated October 26, 2015, the copy of which is available with EXCELSIOR, the State Vigilance Organization has again failed to indicate as to when it is going to take the FIRs to the logical conclusion by filing challans.
About FIR Nos. 15 and 16 of 2014, which pertain to abuse of Roshni Scheme in Jammu and Udhampur districts, the State Vigilance Organization said that investigation in both these cases has been concluded as proved and the matter has been referred to the competent authority for accord of prosecution sanction, which is still awaited. “As soon as the requisite sanction for prosecution is received the same will be produced before the court of law for judicial determination”, the report said without mentioning as to who is delaying the prosecution sanction and since when.
As far as FIR No 6 of Police Station Vigilance Jammu and FIR Nos. 17 and 19 of 2014 registered at Police Station Vigilance Kashmir are concerned, the status report said that these FIRs were remanded back to the concerned branch SSPs for clarification of certain observations raised by the State Vigilance Commission. “The concerned branch SSPs after doing the needful have submitted their final reports, which are under legal scrutiny in the Central Office”, the report said without mentioning the time-frame required for completion of legal scrutiny.
About FIR No.3 of Police Station Vigilance Jammu, the Vigilance Organization said that violation of provisions/rules of the Roshni Act has been found committed by the revenue officers and officials while conferring the ownership rights to the beneficiaries. However, despite this no action could be taken against the erring Government servants as their identity has yet not been established, which otherwise sounds incredible as case was established after detailed scrutiny of the record and it was not that difficult to pin point the officers.
Moreover, investigation in only 28 cases out of 44 regarding transfer of land in favour of non-deserving beneficiaries in Tehsil Ramnagar of Udhampur district has been conducted till date that too without presentation of challan.
About FIR No.23 of 2015 registered at Police Station Vigilance Jammu, the report said that concerned Deputy Commissioner has been asked to provide the relevant records, which is yet to be received from the concerned authorities. Similar is the fate of FIR No.26 of Police Station Vigilance Kashmir as the concerned authorities have not furnished the record sought by the Vigilance Organization despite repeated requests, which also establishes that even district level officers are creating hurdles in completion of probe into Roshni scam cases.
According to the reports, many Deputy Commissioners of Kashmir valley have not submitted record to the Vigilance Organization despite repeated requests and reminders thereby impeding progress in the FIRs. In FIR No.34 of Kashmir, even the erring officers have been identified but action is awaited for want of FSL opinion on their signatures. However, the status report has not mentioned any time-frame about completion of this exercise.
Though it has been mentioned in the status report that investigation in the cases is being conducted on priority basis yet no specific time-frame has been mentioned for presenting challan despite the fact that one and half year period has already lapsed since the registration of first five FIRs in the Roshni scam.
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