On the premise that there was no symbiotic understanding between those Administrative Secretaries and identified blameable officials in State departments under their jurisdiction , it is hard to comprehend as to why clear cut instructions issued in March 2019 should be conveniently ignored in respect of completing departmental enquiries in a time bound manner but not exceeding three months against such officials. Is it that such “bosses” consider themselves to be autonomous enough so as to run departments and offices under them as per their whims and as they liked instead of as they were asked by the Government under relevant rules and procedures? Is not such an obstinate response to Government rules and directives indirectly amounting to patronising irregular practices and corruption as also other undesirable acts of misconduct under relevant service conduct rules? At some level , if managing to bypass many layers of accountability , such non compliance cannot be viewed less seriously and that is why the Chief Secretary has not only noted with concern non compliance by most of the Administrative Secretaries but has given one more opportunity to the defaulting ones to complete such enquiries within a maximum period of three months.
What is the fun of the institutions like the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) and the Crime Branch of the Police if their recommendations and findings are not acted upon promptly by the Administrative Secretaries and other Heads of Departments so as to prepare suitable ground for prosecution against the malefactor officials or instituting Regular Departmental Action (RDA) against them . In other words , it is tantamount to legitimizing wrong practices and deflating whatever moves the Government initiates to fight corruption. It should be amply known to those who willy nilly or knowingly allow the irregular and wrong doings by the concerned officials to be lost in the wilderness of the passage of time , they were creating problems for them in a major way. The reasons are many . Firstly, Jammu and Kashmir State has unfortunately ‘earned’ the notoriety of being infested with large scale corruption in almost each and every area of governance , with certain exceptions, which cannot be tolerated any more. Secondly, the change of the direction of the wind across the country needs to be not only seen but felt too which is determined to whizz over and blow strongest citadels of corruption and facilitators of corruption .
We have reasons to believe that there could be some rare cases which require taking of a different view than the hard core sure cases of wrong doers, the official instructions are clear in such cases in order to leave no scope for any ambiguity. Such cases, along with facts and proper recommendations, are sought to be referred back to the ACB or the Crime Branch and that also within a maximum time of four weeks as soon as recommendations and reports are received from these agencies. Nowhere is it allowed to sit over, soft paddle , avoid and linger on the action which is mandated upon the Administrative Secretaries to otherwise take within the stipulated time.
We feel that monthly reports termed as ‘critical and sensitive’ must be compulsorily made to be submitted by all the Department Heads and Administrative Secretaries in respect of the status of the pending cases of departmental enquiries, the period of pendency, the cogent reasons of pendency, whether higher authorities informed and more time sought, procedural departmental action against the identified official pending completion of enquiry and other relevant data which should be properly monitored. Unless accountability and responsibility were made inalienable part of Government service at every level, mere issuing of instructions would not serve the purpose of having a deterrent effect on those who would prefer wearing low grade integrity to indulge in corrupt practices. Start it from the top and see the results.
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