Not only of House Panels, Govt even treating recommendations of Commissions as ‘trash’

Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Dec 31: Not only the reports of various Committees constituted by both the Houses of State Legislature, the Government is even treating the recommendations of vital Commissions of the State as ‘trash’ which otherwise can go a long way in ensuring clean, corruption-free, accountable and transparent governance to the public. In this way, submission of annual or half yearly reports by some of these Commissions has merely been rendered an exercise without any fruitful outcome.
A detailed analysis of the recommendations made by State Accountability Commission (SAC), State Vigilance Commission (SVC) and State Information Commission (SIC) to the Government for consideration in the key departments—Law and General Administration clearly establishes that had these been implemented in a time-bound manner much headway could have been made in achieving the objective of ensuring corruption-free, transparent and accountable governance to the people.
However, by treating as ‘trash’ the recommendations of these vital Commissions the Government has sent a clear message that it doesn’t have the intention to bring much-needed changes in the functioning of its various organs and make them accountable.
In the year 2002, the then Government enacted Jammu and Kashmir State Accountability Commission Act in order to inquire into grievances and allegations against the public functionaries and Government servants. According to the legal experts, this piece of legislation was even stronger than the Lokpal Act of 2013 enacted by the Parliament. However, in the year 2011, amendments were carried out in this Act whereby Government servants and bodies like Government Corporations, Universities and Cooperative Societies were kept outside the jurisdiction of State Accountability Commission.
“Following infusing of fresh lease of life in the Accountability Commission, its Chairperson Justice B A Khan along with Members Justice J P Singh and Justice B A Kirmani deeply analyzed the Act and accordingly the Commission worked out amendments required to be carried out in the parent Act so that Commission acts as effective and potent instrument of the transparency and accountability in the public administration”, sources said.
Thereafter, the Commission’s Chairperson formally handed over a copy of the proposed amendments to the Minister for Law, Abdul Haq Khan when the latter called on former on April 20, 2016. Though the Law Minister had assured the Accountability Commission of present Government’s complete support and cooperation but till date even discussions have not been held on the amendments proposed by the SAC and the same are gathering dust in the Law Department at Civil Secretariat, sources further said.
Similarly, the State Vigilance Commission (SVC) had proposed certain amendments in the J&K State Vigilance Commission Act, 2011 and the same were formally conveyed to the General Administration Department vide communication No.SVC/Gen/23/2015 dated June 5, 2015. “However, till date no action has been taken by the Government and the papers are lying as trash in one of the corners of General Administration Department in Civil Secretariat”, sources regretted.
“The proposed amendments are necessarily required to be carried out in order to remove some ambiguities in the Act and the Rules”, reads the document of SVC, the copy of which is available with EXCELSIOR.
This Commission had suggested amendment in Clause (d) of Sub-Section (1) of Section 8 of the Act which would enable the Commission to play a proactive role in curbing the menace of corruption by empowering it to take cognizance of the acts of corruption, malpractices and abuse of official position which come to its notice, without waiting for formal complaints.
“The amendments would also enable the Commission to maintain secrecy in respect of the information provided by the whistle blowers from within the administration, who do not want their identity to be disclosed for the fear of being victimized by departmental superiors. Besides, the Commission has also proposed insertion of Sub Section (2) to Section (11) regarding the procedure to be adopted for compelling the attendance of persons to whom summons are issued by the Commission. This amendment has been proposed because in the existing Act, though powers under Code of Civil Procedure have been conferred upon the Commission but there is no specific provision in the Act which could be resorted to for ensuring timely submission of documents and reports in compliance to the directions of the Commission”, the document further reads.
Similarly, the State Information Commission (SIC) had sent numerous communications to the Chief Secretary and other concerned officers for restoring the powers which were available prior to August 2012 when the J&K RTI Rules were repealed at the behest of some top bureaucrats.
However, the first ever Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners completed their tenure while pressing for restoration of snatched powers but no seriousness was shown by the Government to act on the Commission’s recommendations.
“What to talk of acting on the recommendations of the SIC, the Government even allowed this Commission to become completely defunct and presently this transparency watchdog doesn’t have Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners”, sources regretted.
“All this clearly establishes that not only the reports of various Committees constituted by both the Houses of State Legislature, even the recommendations of these vital Commissions don’t carry any importance for the Government”, sources remarked.

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