Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat
Recently the Jammu & Kashmir State Accountability Commission (SAC) took suo moto cognizance of some media reports about official misuse of state helicopters and aircraft. The SAC called the move ‘unjustified’ because some ministers were unnecessarily making use of these Flying Machines. State Accountability Commission (SAC) according to newspaper reports has issued notices to the Chief Minister’s office &Civil Aviation Department seeking their response on this issue.According to SAC’s notice and previous orders of State Information Commission (SIC), it is given to understand that Government doesn’t have any defined policy that regulates the use of state’s helicopters and aircraft by the Ministers and other functionaries of the Government.
Info under RTI :
In February this year a valuable information came to the public domain under Right to Information Act (RTI) related to the official misuse of state helicopters. It is a known fact that there are no official rules / guidelines related to state’s flying machines (choppers and aircraft). The Civil Aviation Department, which looks after these choppers and aircraft,according to the RTI reply doesn’t even maintain the proper record about the people accompanying the Ministers during the travel in Government choppers/plane.These details were revealed after the then State Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) G R Sufi disposed off an appeal filed under Section 16 of J&K RTI Act 2009. Appellant Advocate Vilakshana Singh had filed an RTI application before the Civil Aviation department seeking information on 12 points vis-à-vis the names of ministers in PDP-BJP Coalition Government whose spouses also used State chopper/plane services to attend the marriage ceremony of the then Minister of State for Revenue and sitting MLA from Kishtwar, Sunil Sharma. The information seeker had sought total expenditure on the transportation of the passengers and the departments that bore the expenditure and the policy being followed for allowing the use of official flying machines .
The Public Information Officer (PIO) in CM’s Secretariat who is designated to provide the information under RTI law expressed ignorance about the names of the spouses of the ministers in the list of passengers, who had used the official Chopper to attend the marriage ceremony of the then Minister of State (MoS) Revenue at Kishtwar.
After the intervention of State Information Commission (SIC) the PIO in CM’s office provided the information as he was issued an order for the same by the then State Chief Information Commission (CIC) G R Sufi. State CIC found during the case hearing that there were no written and prescribed rules for availing the helicopter /plane services. Taking this matter seriously, the then
State CIC G R Sufi asked the Chief Minister’s Secretariat to take the matter seriously in order to ensure transparency and accountability while these flying machines are being pressed into service. He had advised that necessary regulations be made in this regard.
Budgam villager seeking chopper details :
In another case of similar nature one Bashir Ahmad Malik S/O Ghulam Rasool Malik from Khag Drang district Budgam had approached us regarding the same issue during the year 2012. The then CM Omar Abdullah had visited Beerwah area in the official helicopter. Bashir argued with us that Beerwah happens to be only 35 kms from Srinagar and why shall a chopper be used for the this short distance travel at the cost of tax payers money ?This man wanted to seek information about the official choppers under RTI Act . We assisted this poor man in filing the necessary RTI application. The CM’s office did not provide him information within the stipulated time of 30 days. He filed an appeal , this was not responded and finally the matter landed in State Information Commission (SIC). G R Sufi who was the State CIC during that time directed the Government to make the official chopper rides of CM public. The information was finally provided to Bashir a man living under poverty line (BPL). It was revealed that 12 core rupees were spent by the Govt in 2 years & on several occasions CM had traveled to Gulmarg ,Pahalgam and Dachigam. To this NC’s senior leader Sheikh Mustaffa Kamal had said that he traveled to these destinations in connection with Tourism promotion. It became a big news not only for the local print media but TV channels like CNN IBN and Times Now ran the news for one complete day. Finally Omar Abdullah tweeted that, he would curtail his chopper rides. He said “people have started questioning us” and during that time he along with his few Cabinet Ministers traveled by road from Srinagar to Jammu.
Conclusion :
People who are now ministers in Government issued statements and raised hue and cry about the official misuse of State chopper by Omar Abdullah and his team in 2012 . Many of these people are in power now and unfortunately they too are doing same thing. How can one justify using state aircraft / helicopter to attend a marriage function of a Minister along with family members ? I appeal Chief minister to order for issuing proper regulations in this direction so that use of Government choppers and aircraft can be regulated.
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