*Says new Govt should carry forward legacy of Mufti
Mohinder Verma
—Excelsior/Rakesh
JAMMU, Mar 30: Lashing out at successive State Governments for rendering Jammu and Kashmir State Accountability Commission as an ‘ornamental’ piece only, Chairperson of the Commission and former Chief Justice of J&K High Court, Justice B A Khan today said forthcoming Government would be distinguished from previous dispensations only when it restores all the powers of the Commission enshrined in the Act of 2002 in order to ensure accountability in functioning of all organs of the Government.
“The new Government, which is in offing, would have to prove its visionary approach by restoring all those powers to the State Accountability Commission, which were existing in the Act of 2002 otherwise bringing accountability in all the organs of the Government would remain a distant dream”, Mr Khan said while addressing media persons here this morning along with Justice J P Singh, Member of the Commission and former Judge of J&K High Court.
The J&K State Accountability Commission Act, 2002 was stronger than the Lokpal Act of 2013 enacted by the Parliament but the Legislators of the State on being misled by the bureaucrats carried out amendments in the Act in 2011 and rendered the Commission mere an ornamental piece instead of being a watchdog over the functioning of all the Government institutions, universities, cooperative societies, bureaucrats and public functionaries, which was the real intent of the principle Act, Justice Khan said.
Fairly admitting that reconstituted Accountability Commission has failed to deliver during the past six months despite lot of expectations from the people, he said, “nobody has come to us with the formal complaints against the public functionaries till date despite the fact that our doors are always open….we could not come up to the expectations of the people mainly because of shortcomings in the Act and snatching of powers in 2011”.
It was a deliberate attempt to throttle the institution of Accountability Commission in 2011 and no Government ever tried to ensure that this vital Commission functions strictly as per the mandate of the Act of 2002, he said, adding during all these years the successive Governments only boasted of constituting Accountability Commission to bring answerability in the system but sincere efforts were never made in strengthening the Commission because consciousness was not clear.
Disclosing that Commission has pointed out deficiencies in the Act, Justice Khan said, “we were about to submit the document to the former Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed but we failed to reach him because of deterioration in his health and then untimely demise”, adding “we were optimistic about his full support to our stand because the Accountability Act of 2002, which was progressive in nature, was enacted during Mufti Sayeed’s earlier stint as Chief Minister of J&K”.
“If the Government, which is all set to be formed within next few days, wants to carry forward the legacy of the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and really bring accountability in the system, it would have to restore all the powers to the Commission by bringing bureaucrats, universities and cooperative societies under its jurisdiction”, the Chairperson of SAC said, adding “restoration of powers is imperative to make SAC potent, vibrant and result oriented as in the principle Act the Commission had the powers to entertain the complaints of inaction, nepotism, favoritism, disproportionate assets and grievances”.
“While bringing back the principle Act of 2002, the Government must also incorporate some new provisions so that it becomes obligatory on the part of the Government to implement the recommendations of the Commission”, he stressed while making it clear that politicians should keep in mind that SAC is not in any adversarial position with the Government but only wants everybody to be accountable.
“Moreover, the Commission wants to protect the whistle blowers so that they can freely come forward with the complaints and for this some provisions are required to be incorporated in the Act”, he added.
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