NL Correspondent
SRINAGAR: When the State Vigilance Commission was established in 2011, the government said it will combat the corruption in the state.
Subsequently, several laws were enacted to make the anti-graft body a “powerful tool” especially to fight political corruption. Discussion were held at different public platforms about the future of the commission vis-a-vis its role in combating growing corruption in the state.
Six-years down the line it faced similar fate like other commissions by succumbing to the official apathy without making any noticeable change despite spending crore of rupees on salaries of employees and other officer bearers.
In 2011, the State legislature had approved a Bill for setting up the SVC in J&K. A high-level committee headed by then chief minister Omar Abdullah had approved the appointment of Kuldeep Khoda as the chief vigilance commissioner and R K Jeerath as the vigilance commissioner during a meeting on May 28, 2012.
However, the then leader of opposition Mehbooba Mufti, who was one of the members of the selection panel, had objected to Khoda`s appointment and submitted a dissenting note. Despite that the then NC-Congress approved their appointments on February 11, 2013.
Even though, Kudeep Khoda and R K Jerath completed their four year term as its chief vigilance commissioner (CVC) and vigilance commissioner (VC), respectively, on February 21, 2017 while Gou-sul-Nisa Jeelani attained her term as vigilance commissioner on March 31, this year, there has been “no or little difference” on the ground, and is now lying defunct.
This could be gauged from a recent report of the SVC where it has mentioned that state government has not implemented its recommendations for bringing transparency in the functioning of the departments.
As per the Commission's annual report for 2016, the anti-graft body has made several recommendations to the government since 2015 for strengthening the system of internal vigilance in its departments. However, the recommendations are still awaiting implementation.
In one of its unimplemented recommendations, the anti-graft body has asked the government to install CCTV cameras in all offices which have large public interface.
The departments were asked to preserve the recordings for a minimum six months, with periodic examination by a committee headed by a senior officer.
The SVC has made the recommendation in response to the complaints received in the past against the departments with large public dealings.
In these departments, the report says, there is a general feeling among people that “the officials are the most corrupt”.
“People believe that no works are being done without bribing officials in these departments,” it states.
The SVC has also asked the government that the sanctioning authority for works of all engineering departments should be different from the executing agency, so as to create an in-built system check against corrupt practices.
The departments were also told to provide complete information on their websites regarding the laws, rules and procedures governing the issue of licenses, permissions, clearances, and certificates. So far, as per the report, that too has been ignored.
The SVC has recommended that the building permissions by municipalities should be streamlined. Several departments were asked to provide all requisite NOCs to applicants through a single window.
The SVC has also recommended that premature transfers in all the departments need to be “stopped except on disciplinary grounds”.
“All transfers should be done on the recommendations of a board constituted for the purpose,” it says.
It has recommended that the drug testing laboratories need to be upgraded on the pattern of in-house laboratories of multinational companies.
None of these recommendations have been implemented as it seems governments do not take SVC's directives seriously.
In March this year, Governor, N N Vohra, expressed dismay over no action being initiated against corrupt officials despite reports filed by the state vigilance authorities against them.
In March this year, the General Administration Department issued a notification after which several departments sent nominations for appointment of officers as CVC and VCs. However, since then, sources said no exercise has been started to appoint new office bearers for this vital commission.
“It is a very lengthy process to appoint the office bearers of the SVC as ruling parties have to take the leader of the Opposition on board for their appointment. After which the cabinet has to give the approval for the nominated names then needs Governor's clearance,” the official said.
