Rajan Gandhi
Corruption is like cancer which if not detected in time can only play havoc on the development front of the area and our Jammu and Kashmir is no exception to this menace. Recent FIR by ACB against two former chairmen of J&K Bank and other higher officials in backdoor appointment of around 2500 persons just reveals the tip of iceberg as throughout the year ACB, Crime Branch, CBI and ED were busy in filing FIRs and raids to get hold of these white collared criminals. Former Governor SP Malik publicly admonished J&K’s politicians and bureaucrats as he openly admitted rampant corruption in appointment of executives in J&K Bank and insurance scam of government employees. He also put on record that it takes months for files to move from one table to another for obvious reasons and even some projects of crores got cancelled/delayed in the absence of DPRs. Scam in SICOP for handheld devices supplied to PHQ and SICOP official during his service getting his nephew illegally appointed and promoted as a result he is right now MD of a Government Department. SICOP is not the only one Department as politicians and bureaucrats think it’s their right to just brush aside the set procedures and it may sound not only incredible but rather impossible to public that that an employee appointed just as reporter, equivalent to a clerk in the J&K Legislature, through ‘backdoor’, managed to secure the position of Special Secretary, equivalent to senior IAS cadre. The case is in the court and even PMO office has sought the details of this case. Temple of learning, our universities are not far behind as year after year illegal appointments of relatives, union leaders or favorite ones are being done blatantly flouting every rule in the book.
Another officer who was transferred from the post of Law Secretary, as in-charge Secretary of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council misused his official position by promoting gazetted officers of J&K Legislative Council illegally as the competence to issue such orders lies only either with the Chief Minister or Governor only. Same officer got involved in another backdoor appointment scam in KVIB and government conducted an inquiry committee headed by then Home Secretary to look into these backdoor appointments. Administration finally ordered cancellation of all illegal recruitment’s in KVIB in the last two years after Committee submitted its inquiry report. Those allegedly selected through fraudulent means included then CM’s cousin, son of her maternal uncle then PDP Vice President.
Ex MD of JAKFED and others got booked in cement scam and rampant corruption and mismanagement ultimately led to closure of JAKFED this year. Former DC of Kupwara got two years jail term and four lakh as fine for embezzlement. ACB raided Ranbir Press for arrears scam of employees. ACB registers FIR against Director ISM and others for spurious drug scam. ACB raided seven premises of former JMC Commissioner and MD of SIDCO and recovered documents, plots, partnerships/investment in various industries, insurance policies, bank lockers and what not running in crores beyond their known sources of income. Crores being recovered from a TSO with even his house getting attached and hundreds of crores as pending liabilities by RDD under MGNREGA exposes the reality of our governance and administration.
J&K Bank has also distinction of sanctioning of illegal loans of several hundred crores violating every norm and which have now turned out to be NPAs only causing huge losses to bank. ACB has registered FIR’s in some of these cases also and investigations are on. Such was the brazenness of bank that they filed defamation cases of crores to muzzle the saner voices of journalists when some genuine reporting was done to expose their misdeeds. Another much publicized scam is of JKCA in which CBI has not only charge sheeted former CM but ED has questioned him for hawala transactions as well. Transfer industry is the only flourishing business of our State as there is no transparency, no seniority list or service record has been put online to escape scrutiny. Is any criterion followed or it’s just at the whims and fancies of the politicians and bureaucrats and practically no department is left untouched even now.
With these kind of rampant corruption cases task of investigating agencies is very important and requires meticulous planning and investigation to get evidences which can withstand scrutiny of law. Raids on lower rung bank officials will not reveal the truth as no branch manager of any bank has powers to sanction the loans worth hundreds of crores without patronage of political class but no politician has been booked or taken to task till now in J&K Bank scam. On the other hand loan defaulter politicians and their relatives are still out of the reach of law as ultimately their loans got declared as NPA without following due course of recoveries like mortgage of their properties or recovery from their salaries or pensions and the most astonishing part is that investigating agencies assigned to unveil the truth have undertaken investigations as ‘Secret Investigation’ which means investigating officers cannot write formally to anyone for information and as such great hindrance in investigation with least way outs to get to the bottom of the truth. But despite these tactics IOs have succeeded in unraveling the truth and recommended registration of FIRs against the board of directors of banks who have declared loans as NPAs without following set procedures and others. Most astonishing is the fact that no FIRs have been registered in such cases till now, why and who is sitting on the files is another issue of proper investigation.
With these facts in public domain question arises are we serious enough to eradicate this curse in our J&K? A casual look into the hierarchy of these investigation agencies reveal that IOs as well as higher officials are from State Police itself, investigating cases of either political class or elite administrative lobby or their own seniors and as such major stumbling block in thorough investigation. Another major hurdle is delaying tactics applied to save one among them. There are numerous examples of such cases and even HC has given repeated reprimand to various departments including vigilance organization in the past and more recently ACB. The Special Judge Anti-Corruption Jammu categorically rejected the closure/final report with regard to the state land measuring five kanals and two marlas with the direction to the SSP ACB Jammu to further investigate the matter for including within its ambit all encroachments by anybody and everybody whosoever unfazed by their status or position and the persons involved are then Div Com, DC and other officials. No action on Roshni Land Scam till now and non filing of Annual Property Returns (APRs) by majority of officials tell the actual state of affairs. Forty thousand gun licenses in few years and DCs directly involved in the scam of crores and national security is an eye opener of the rot we are in. Not long ago allegations of #me too by a serving DSP against ADGP rank official for settlement of her case and another case involving brother of another head getting hushed up is not new for public. Practically there is no check on how many cases ACB Head refuses for registration of FIRs or vice versa. Only two years time frame to finish the investigations is not enough as same set of officials are involved in corruption as well as investigations, any change of regime means end of investigations as such if Central Government is serious to weed out cancer of corruption from J&K they have to get rid of this cozy nexus of politicians and bureaucrats immediately, the sooner they do, the best it will be to clear the hurdles of development.
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