*Lays stress on time bound disposal of FIRs, verifications
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 10: Sending a loud and clear message that her Government would not tolerate corrupt practices at any level in the administration, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has asked the State Vigilance Organization (SVO) not to succumb to pressure from any quarter while taking FIRs and verifications to the logical conclusion but at the same time be fair and transparent in investigations.
Highly placed sources in the General Administration Department, which monitors the functioning of State Vigilance Organization, told EXCELSIOR that Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is keenly watching the activities of the premier investigating agency of the State in the eradication of deep-rooted menace of corruption as cleansing the administration of corrupt officers and officials is her top priority.
“She has conveyed to the Chief Secretary as well as General Administration Department, which has administrative control over the State Vigilance Organization, that top brass of the investigating agency should be conveyed in explicit terms that there was no need of succumbing to any pressure from any quarter while taking the FIRs and verifications to the logical conclusion”, they said.
Sources further said: “She is of the observation that unless the Vigilance Organization functions without any pressure the menace of corruption cannot be tackled. However, she wants that cases should be disposed of as per the merits and in most transparent and fair manner so that message doesn’t go that Vigilance Organization is a tool to harass the officers and officials”.
Taking serious note of pendency of FIRs and verifications for quite long time because of slackness on the part of Investigating Officers, the Chief Minister, according to the sources, has desired that time-lines should be fixed for taking FIRs and verifications to logical conclusion. “She wants all the pending cases to be disposed of in a shortest possible time as dilly-dallying approach sends a wrong message about the functioning of Vigilance Organization”, they added.
As per the official data, a total of 235 cases are pending investigation with the branch SSPs of Vigilance Organiza-tion and 30 cases are under examination in Central office. Similarly, 1249 verifications, Joint Surprise Checks and Preliminary Investigations are pending with Vigilance Organization. Moreover, a total of 46 cases are under stay—29 belonging to Vigilance Organization Jammu and 17 belonging to Vigilance Organization Kashmir.
According to the sources, numerous verifications are pending in the State Vigilance Organization for considerable period of time mainly because of slackness on the part of concerned officers and officials within the premier investigating agency.
They further said that Chief Minister has further desired that Vigilance Organization should issue No-Objection Certificates (NOC) to the officers and officials in a time bound manner so that there are no hurdles in ordering their promotions. It is pertinent to mention here that Vigilance clearance is pre-requisite for affecting promotions at various levels in the State administration.
“The Chief Minister has also taken serious note of tout system still active in several public dealing departments particularly Regional Transport Offices and Assistant Regional Transport Officers and she has desired that State Vigilance Organization should also lay focus on this aspect also”, sources said, adding “in view of explicit direction of Chief Minister the Vigilance Organization may take action against the touts in public dealing departments in the coming days”.
It is worthwhile to mention here that the Chief Minister’s direction on making systematic efforts to clear all pending cases without any fear or favour has come few days after the Governor N N Vohra made advice to the State Vigilance Organization in this regard keeping in view the alarming proportion of corruption.
According to the sources, the Governor and the Chief Minister are likely to discuss Vigilance functioning in the coming days as was pointed out by the former few days back. “With Governor and Chief Minister expressing strong desire for stern action in the corruption cases, the State Vigilance Organization has been left with no other option but to complete the pending FIRs and verifications in a time bound manner”, they added.
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