Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Oct 2: Governor NN Vohra has taken serious exception to pending departmental enquiries in several Government departments for the past quite some time and has fixed the deadline of March 2016 for their completion to ensure that there was no pending case in any of the departments. He has also sought regular monthly progress reports on the action taken in the departmental enquiries and results achieved on this account.
A recent report by Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) Kuldeep Khoda to the Governor has upset the Raj Bhawan as it (the report) states that the CVC had come across a large number of enquiries, which were pending with various Government departments and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) pertaining to serious irregularities but the Departmental Vigilance Officers (DVOs) hadn’t initiated any action on them.
“What to speak of completing the enquiries and recommending action against the corrupt officers, the DVOs had, in some cases, not even initiated the process of enquiries against the officers in the cases forwarded to them for enquiries by the CVC and the State Vigilance Organisation (SVO),’’ official sources told the Excelsior.
Sources said the CVC met the Governor recently and submitted him a detailed report on the departmental enquiries pending against several ‘corrupt’ Government officers and officials but the action hadn’t been taken, or not even initiated in many cases, by the DVOs due to no proper mechanism to take the officers to task, whose cases were referred for departmental action by the anti-graft bodies.
In a communiqué, the Governor has asked the PDP-BJP coalition Government headed by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to set up an “effective mechanism” to ensure time-bound disposal of graft cases pending with various departments and clear all arrears by March end next year.
“The Governor has taken a serious note of the indifferent approach of various State Government departments in dealing with the pending complaints and enquiries pertaining to corruption cases against Government functionaries,” an official handout issued by the Raj Bhawan said.
Vohra asked the Government to set up an effective mechanism to ensure that all such pending cases are dealt with on a time-bound basis, and all arrears cleared by March 31, 2016, to achieve the objective of responsive and transparent governance in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Raj Bhawan spokesman said the Governor was “disturbed” by the Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) Kuldeep Khoda’s recent report to him which noted that a large number of complaints or enquiries referred by the CVC to Government departments have been pending for the past several years without any reason given.
Vohra has called for time-bound attention by all concerned State Government Departments for disposal of all these complaints without any further delay, he said.
The Governor has also advised the Government to issue clear cut directions to Departmental Vigilance Officers (DVOs) to ensure disposal of all pending corruption related complaints in their respective departments within a time frame to achieve zero pendency by end of March, 2016.
The Raj Bhawan Secretariat has also sought regular monthly progress report on action taken and results achieved in this behalf, the spokesman said.
Last month, CVC Khoda had called on the Government at the Raj Bhawan and briefed him about the functioning of the State Vigilance Commission and the various objectives achieved since the Commission was established.
Sources said the CVC had submitted detailed report to the Government which included a large number of enquiries pending before the Government departments and PSUs for action against the corrupt officers but no action had been taken on them. The report pointed out that a number of enquiries had been referred to the DVOs for departmental enquiries by the CVC and SVO but reports obtained by the CVC indicated that majority of them were pending and no action had been initiated against the ‘corrupt’ officers.
It may be mentioned here that the CVC refers some complaints of corruption against the officers and officials of Government departments/PSUs for DVOs for departmental action if it came to the conclusion that the allegations can be probed departmentally and there were no need for registration of FIR in the particular case.
“Only those cases of corruption are referred to the DBOs for departmental enquiries in which the CVC or SVO find that the FIR was not required and departmental action will serve the purpose. The departmental action can be initiated in very short time after completion of inquiry while registration of FIR and then judicial determination of the case is time consuming exercise,’’ sources said.
The CVC report has reportedly pointed out that some of the Government officers/ officials against whom the departmental action had been recommended had either retired or were at the verge of retirement without facing the departmental action, which they were supposed to, in view of irregularities or certain malpractices committed by them.
“In certain cases, the DVOs had not even initiated the enquiries when the status of enquiries referred to them by the CVC, was sought,’’ they said.
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