It Happens Only In J&K

One can gauge the reality of the state of affairs in Jammu and Kashmir by the fact that suspended officials of the Mining Department have been on duty in the Directorate of Geology and Mining Office in Jammu. This startling revelation has been made by none other than the Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary himself after finding this ‘Gorakhdhanda’ during a surprise inspection. Although he has found other discrepancies in the working of the aforesaid office, what was unfortunate, unimaginable and eye-opener for him and many others in the government was the presence of many suspended officials in the office working in a routine manner. It is pertinent to mention that these officials were suspended on serious allegations of facilitating illegal mining. Of course, after finding such chaotic conditions in the aforementioned office the Deputy Chief Minister will take certain steps including a probe for face-saving but the whole gamut has opened up the Pandora’s box proving beyond doubt that there are certain entities in some of the departments in J&K, who feel that they are above the law and can work at their whims and fancies least caring about the so-called helmsmen, who think that they are running the affairs of the Union Territory. As a matter of fact, the Deputy Chief Minister and even the Chief Minister owe an explanation for the free-for-all situation under their nose. One can say that such arbitrariness in the government offices can only be seen in J&K, where officials have no regard towards rules and the law. Deputy CM’s statement that he had visited the office to assess its functioning but was shocked to find officials, suspended by him earlier, still present and working shows incompetency of the elected government fully endorsing that the grievances of the people with regard to illegal mining are true to the hilt with ministers not doing much to end the misrule and mismanagement. His submission that many crushers across the region were involved in illegal mining again shows his inability to streamline things and tighten the noose around wrongdoers thus raising a big question mark on his adroitness. Though he is good at rhetoric but the on-ground performance is dismal and sluggish as proven by the defiant staff of the Directorate of Geology and Mining Office in Jammu.