Yet another instance of blatant violation of instructions from a Central Government organization to the J&K Government has come to light. The Deputy Commissioners of all 22 districts of the State, who were provided 20,000 Television Sets and Direct to Home (DTH) receivers by the Ministry of Information to be issued free of cost to far flung areas of the State, where no Doordarshan (DD) terrestrial signal reaches and which are not covered by cable networking, are not responding to queries of the said Ministry. The scheme was launched at a cost of 9 crore rupees and along with the television sets and other equipment, clear instructions were conveyed to the State Government of how to identify the places where this information facility would be provided. Now, the Principal Accountant General has found blatant violation of the instructions of the Ministry of I&B and reported that 2 crore rupees have been spent on an unfruitful project.
Despite repeated reminders, the Deputy Commissioners have failed to come with details about the distribution of the facility. Obviously, they were required to identify the border and far flung areas which are out of the reach of terrestrial signals. From their delaying tactics one can assume that the distribution has been unfair and rather bordering on corruption. This means that the scheme of the Ministry of I&B stands sabotaged. It is all right that the Principal Accountant General has blocked 1.08 crore rupees from the allocated budget, but the question is why should not there be an inquiry into this gross violation of standing instruction and unfair distribution of the television sets. Was there deliberate attempt on the part of the State authorities to sabotage the scheme? Was nepotism and favouritism playing a role in the matter? An inquiry has to be made and the officials have to be made answerable.
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