*Erring officials superannuate without being punished
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 4: There is complete lack of accountability in the Rural Development Department of the State and the directives from the top brass carry no importance for the officers down the line. Moreover, those facing serious allegations are dearer to a section of officers in the department than facilitating action against them in order to give practical shape to the orders of the High Court.
This can be gauged from the status report about the pending departmental enquiries filed by Khurshid Ahmad Shah, Secretary to Government, Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj in the High Court today in response to the directives issued in a Public Interest Litigation titled Sheikh Mohd Shafi and Prof S K Bhalla Versus State and Others.
A total of 11 cases of departmental enquiries were pending in the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj out of which three cases have been closed and eight cases are pending for disposal. In one of the closed cases, the General Administration Department has sought some clarification from the Department of Rural Development, said the status report, the copy of which is available with EXCELSIOR.
The perusal of the status report clearly indicates that the process of taking departmental enquiries to the logical conclusion by initiating appropriate action against the erring officers and officials is being scuttled at some levels despite explicit directions from the High Court. It is due to slackness on the part of concerned authorities about completing departmental enquiries within stipulated time-frame that several erring officers have even attained superannuation in blatant violation of the High Court orders.
It is pertinent to mention here that in this PIL the High Court had directed the Secretary, General Administration Department to inform it about the rules in vogue to deal with the officers, who are facing various charges but have retired from the Government services.
On this, the GAD had explicitly submitted that the concerned departments have been asked not to finalize the full pensionary claims in favour of the alleged accused against whom departmental actions are pending. But, there is hardly any compliance in this regard from the departments.
In the year 2010, an enquiry was initiated against Ghulam Hassan, the then BDO Gandoh, Bashir Ahmad and Aijaz Ahmad, MPWs of Block Bhalessa after it was alleged that they were involved in drawal of fraud bills for execution of works without getting the works checked physically from the REW Engineers.
In the month of January 2012, the Project Officer, Wage Employment (ACD) Doda was appointed as an inquiry officer to examine the article of charges/replies furnished by the erring officials. The inquiry officer in his report submitted in the month of August 2012 had recommended that the charge leveled against the officer can be dropped with a warning/censure to be careful in future.
On the basis of this report, the Administrative Department in the month of December 2012 asked the Director Rural Development Jammu to issue warning to Bashir Ahmed and Aijaz Ahmed as by that time Ghulam Hassan Bhat, the then BDO had retired.
“The Administrative Department vide letter dated June 25, 2015 followed by reminders last dated September 14, 2015 had requested the Director Rural Development Jammu to intimate whether the warning has been issued. However, no reply has been received from the concerned quarter”, the Secretary to Government, Rural Development Department said in the status report.
This clearly indicates that while one erring officer was allowed to superannuate honorably and even warnings were not issued to two others for obvious reasons as such they have remained unpunished till date.
Similarly, departmental enquiry was initiated against Junior Scale KAS officer Anirudh Rai, in the year 2010 for drawal of money against nonexistent works. In the year 2012, the Administrative Department asked the Director Rural Development Jammu to fix the responsibility for recovery of the amount to the tune of Rs 88739 calculated by the Vigilance Organization as loss caused to the State exchequer. Though an amount of Rs 41520 was recovered by the Director, yet the Administrative Department was not updated about recovery of pending amount from the officer despite issuance of letter dated June 25, 2015 followed by reminders last dated September 14, 2015.
“The requisite report/information is still awaited from the Director”, reads the status report of Secretary to Government, Rural Development Department.
Likewise, in a case relating to non-disbursement of DA arrears and pay dues, the Administrative Department had asked the Director Rural Development Jammu to make recovery of amount from M K Koul, the then Junior Assistant in Block Mahore in the month of June last year. Even reminders were sent on this issue but the requisite report/information is still awaited from the Directorate.
Moreover, the status report is totally silent about the action initiated against Farooq Ahmed Khan, the then BDO Mahore, who was party to this case. While process of seeking replies/information is still on, both the erring officials have already superannuated honorably from the services.
In another case relating to drawal of bills against non-existent works, an enquiry was initiated against the Executive Engineer Mohammad Shabir, JE Mohd Asadullah, VLW Haq Nawaz and BDO Anirudh Rai and the General Administration Department had on August 28, 2015 sought to know whether recovery ordered vide order dated July 2, 2015 has been recovered from the delinquent public servants or not.
In response, the Rural Development Department, Civil Secretariat vide letter dated September 29, 2015 followed by reminder dated November 24, 2015 had requested the Director Rural Development Jammu to furnish the copies of receipts effecting the recoveries within a week’s time positively but till date no response has been heard from the concerned quarter.
In another case of drawal of payment against non-existent works, the Administrative Department had on December 9, 2015 asked the Director Rural Development Jammu to recover Rs 56667 and Rs 41320 respectively from Santosh Kumar, Technical Assistant and Manzoor Ahmad Mir, Assistant Executive Engineer for causing loss to the State exchequer. “But till date no response has been heard from their side”, reads the status report.
There are numerous cases involving allegations of payment against non-existent works, misappropriation of funds, drawal against fraudulent bills and making payments in violation of norms where the officers down the line have not responded to the communications and reminders from the Administrative Department (Rural Development).
“This establishes that all is not well in the Rural Development Department and unless accountability is ensured by timely punishing the erring officers and even scolding those adopting dilly-dallying approach on the departmental enquiries, the plunder of funds at the cost of State exchequer would continue unabated”, sources said.
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