One after another mega scam in various departments is coming to light but only through the intervention of State High Court. It is now becoming increasingly clear that cases filed with the High Court under the provision of Public Interest Litigation are really in the interests of the people in general. Keeping in sight unwillingness of the administration to enforce accountability in letter and in spirit, the blatant and brazen cases of corruption, misappropriation and embezzlement would never come to the notice of general public. The magnitude of misappropriation is to the extent that in the case of CAPD the Division Bench made the remark that what they had found could be only the tip of the iceberg.
The Division Bench of the High Court has been at a loss to understand why such scams have gone unnoticed and unaccounted for. It is just a freak of chance that the scam has come to light. If there was no PIL and no report from a lower court, the matter would never have come to light and the criminals would have been enjoying life after having looted the public exchequer.
The magnitude of corruption and misappropriation of funds is incredible. In compliance of the directions of Court, a report has now been filed by the Deputy Secretary, CAPD Department, which discloses the names of 88 employees belonging to Kashmir Division who have misappropriated huge amounts. Likewise, in Jammu Division, the misappropriation has been made by 57 employees and both the lists have been placed on record. In all 147 employees have been indicted and the case is being framed. A department in which 147 employees are indicted for corruption is virtually an open market for general loot and embezzlement. One wonders what the structure of this department is that it has no accountability at any stage. In order to understand the magnitude of misappropriation of funds we give just two examples. At item No. 18 in the list concerning Kashmir Division in respect of Marwah/Warwan, it has been mentioned that the officer Abdul Rashid Magray has misappropriated an amount of Rs 71, 18,704.68 in the year 2003-04. He was dismissed from service but no recovery has been made. Is that a punishment one may ask? Likewise, in respect of Item No 20 pertaining to Inshan Godowns, one Ghulam Rasool Bhat has misappropriated a sum of Rs 43, 85,593.28 in the year 2003-04 with no recovery. He has been continuing under suspension as the case is under investigation with Crime Branch Jammu. Naturally, he would be earning full salary as 100% pension allowance. Serial Nos. 70, 71 and 72 show that a sum of Rs 1,22,10,465.00 by each of the officers, namely Manzoor Ahmad Chat, Khurshid Ahmad Dar and Abdul Qayoom Dar has been misappropriated in the year 2013-14. We cannot enlist all the accused officials here but the conclusion that one draws is that the scam is widespread and its tentacles are spread far and deep. While the court may take appropriate steps to deal with these culprits but the question is that how come the administrative structure has overlooked the entire episode and allowed public money to be grabbed by swindlers. It augurs bad for the society to allow a small section of its members live affluent life at the cost of ordinary tax payer.
Taking full cognizance of the magnitude of the crime, the Division Bench has, consequently, and very rightly, thought of taking stringent measures to put a halt to this rot. It has taken two decisions. One is that it has forbidden the officers/officials from alienating their properties or operating their bank accounts till further orders. Secondly the court has directed all of them to furnish the details of their moveable and immoveable assets in their name, spouse, brother or children names, including the details of their bank accounts along with the details of the moveable and immoveable assets/bank accounts of their spouses and children. The court has further directed the Secretary CAPD to notify the court decision in this case in the newspapers within one week.
There is much appreciation of the Division Bench’s orders in this case of corruption and misappropriation. The general feeling is that it was the duty of the administration to have taken proper action at proper time but it has not for reasons best known to the concerned. But as far as the court order is concerned, it has brought a wave of satisfaction among the people that there is the rule of law in this state and culprits and corrupt people cannot escape scot free.
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