CAG’s report on the performance of the Estates Department for the period 2010 to 2015 has been laid on the table in both houses of the Legislature. As usual, this department, too, has come under severe criticism because of gross irregularities which the audit examination has detected in not one but a number of areas of its function and jurisdiction. An overall impression that we get from scanning and analyzing the report, of which the Daily Excelsior has procured a copy, shows that the Department has been functioning more as a charity organization than a Statutory Department of the Government that has to conduct its business according the desk book rules of administration. We find that this is a department that cares least for rules and distributes favours like a munificent monarch at sweet will without taking into account whether the beneficiary deserves it or not or whether rules permit it or not. It has been working like a holder of huge fief where nobody checks or challenges the irregularities that have been allowed to happen. One is at a loss to understand whether this kind of arbitrary administration and favouritism are the norms of a democracy and acceptable to the civil society. The responsibility of bringing its high-handed and arbitrary performance to the notice of the civil society has fallen on the shoulders of media.
What justification is there for allotting dual accommodation — MLA hostel flats as well as Government house — to 55 MLAs including some Ministers at Srinagar as well as Jammu? What justification is there in allotting to two legislators accommodation by the Custodian Department apart from accommodation by the Estates Department and Legislative Assembly Secretariat? Why this blatant favour to these persons by violating the rules and regulations? This is not only in contravention of rules but also smacks of corruption or undue favours, which forms a case for investigation by the crime branch or the Vigilance Organization. How come scores of former Legislators or Ministers continue to retain accommodation once allotted to them by the Estates Department even after their retirement? The ED has taken no steps to evict them through proper channel and they continue to bask in the sunshine of the munificence of the Estate Department, as it has been turned into a private fief of the Estates authorities.
The CAG has given figures in crores of rupees which the State Exchequer has had to lose on account of either arbitrary decisions of the Estate Department or its wilful negligence. The report says that the Department has made avoidable extra expenditure of nearly Rs. 33 crore due to non-adherence to norms. Owing o non -eviction of unauthorized occupants the State Exchequer has lost nearly 14 crore rupees during the period 2010 to 2015 on account of rent. As many as 146 Government residential quarters of various categories had remained under the occupation of retired persons, family of allottees in case of death of persons to whom allotments were made, former legislators and had not been vacated even after a lapse of prescribed permissible retention period.
In addition to gross irregularities in allotment of Government accommodation, the CAG has also raised eyebrow on total lack of interest on the part of ED authorities in properly utilising its assets to generate legal revenue and reduce expenditures of the Government. For example the structures on two acre estate of Khazir Manzil in Dalgate were gutted long back and the ruins are left as these were. The Department did not take any steps to reconstruct the structures and utilise these for proper purposes. In the same way the CAG has observed that the ED has not been able to raise residential colonies/flats on lands available to it as that would have reduced demand for Government accommodation by government functionaries.
This is a sordid state of affairs. The Government has huge responsibility of addressing this mismanagement and favouritism rampant in the Estates Department. Various recommendations made by the CAG in its report now before the legislators should be seriously considered by the law makers and if approved, the Government has the responsibility of bringing about these changes in the system. It would be in fitness of things to set up a committee of the legislators to make full enquiries from the officials of the ED why these irregularities were allowed. In case they suspect foul play, the matter should be referred to the Vigilance for further probing. After all the defaulters have to be brought to the book if we want good governance to be given to the State.
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