Dr Sapna K Sangra
Though Mehbooba Mufti after taking over as the CM in 2016 has been all out struggling to make the state corruption free, there seems to be no respite and the fact that continues to haunt us is that J&K remains in top 5 most corrupt states in India irrespective of the political party that remained in power. In November 2016, her Government ordered termination of the services of 21 Government employees of various departments after declaring them Deadwood on the basis of reports obtained against them from the State Vigilance Organisation. Her father, Late Mufti Mohd Sayeed in a similar move had sacked 63 corrupt officials by invoking Article 226 against them. However, the Courts have struck down termination orders of about a dozen officers so far while the cases of many others are pending in the High Court at various stages.
The recent recommendations of Kuldeep Khoda, IPS who completed his term as CVC a couple of days back suggesting installation of CCTV Cameras at Toll Posts, Patwar-khanas, police stations etc is a good suggestion but the CVC needs to be reminded that the evil of corruption which has spread its tentacles to every sphere of life in the state cannot be eradicated merely by installing CCTVs at vital public offices. One needs to understand that the corruption in these places though seems writ large, but doesn’t even constitute 10 percent of the total corruption in the state. The remaining 90 percent corruption takes place in Mega projects, Constructions, Purchases, allotments of tenders, transfers, postings etc in which, behind the curtains, maneuvers by the business-bureaucratic-political elite plays the lead role, something which the general public has no idea about. Had this fact been considered by the Commission, some directions to tackle the corruption in these areas would have been suggested. Even in the places where installation of CCTV cameras has been suggested, lower court complexes failed to seek the due attention of the Commission.
My memory goes back to the summer of 2008, wherein, the Governor N.N Vohra while addressing the 8th Departmental Vigilance Officers Conference at Srinagar had expressed his concern over the menace of corruption and had called for restoring the trust of the people in the administration by making it more transparent and corruption free. Vohra reiterated that the erosion of credibility lends credence to the common perception that while the rich can get their jobs done by greasing the palms of the corrupt, it is actually the poor who generally suffers. Hypothetically, even if the Governor has to address the same conference in March 2017, that is, after nine years, his address can well be the same as nothing has changed over nearly a decade. The anti graft bodies and various Commissions set up to address the malady has miserably failed to deliver and we are proud to be where we were and that is, among top 5 corrupt States in the country. There has neither been any arrest of top officials in corruption cases nor any attachment of property in the disproportionate assets case in the last many years and the situation looks so hunky-dory as if all is well with the system.
Seriousness of any government in eradicating corruption can be judged by the kind of appointments made not only in the Anti graft bodies under whose command crusade against corruption is launched but also in the other departments right from the advisors to Advocate Generals. The basic tenet of the rule of law: ‘Be you ever so high, the law is above you’, cannot be adhered to in letter and spirit unless the anti graft body itself is not impartial, transparent and accountable in its working. There can be no denying the fact that corruption flows from top to bottom but the crusade against corruption always and every time starts from the bottom and seldom goes up. As brought out, the fight against corruption remains confined to curb 10% of the corruption and the political-business-bureaucratic-elite nexus remains untouched. This narrative needs to be changed as things are fast changing at the national level.
Former Haryana Chief Minister, Om Prakash Chautala; his son Ajay Chautala and two senior IAS officers are serving 10-year jail term in Tihar since 2013 in a teacher recruitment scam of 2000. Only three months back, the former Chief of the Air Force S.P Tyagi was arrested and put behind the bars after 10 years of his retirement and most recently, A.P Singh under whose command the CBI probed 2G spectrum scam and the CWG scam and made high profile arrests including that of former telecom minister A Raja, Suresh Kalmadi and several corporate and public servants was booked by none other than CBI itself for allegedly conniving with the controversial meat exporter Moin Qureshi. The case against A.P. Singh comes close on the heels of the agency’s probe against another former CBI Director, Ranjit Sinha, IPS. These few incidents remind us that persons come and go but the paper and the files never die and remain alive for decades together. The arbitrary decisions, selections, favoritism, abuse of official position, concealment of facts by the officers sitting at the helm of affairs while deciding any matter to favour or disfavor is not something which will now get buried and forgotten.
Over the last couple of years, the working, impression and effectiveness of prime investigating agency of the State was at the lowest ebb unconcerned by the fast developments taking place in the society. Arrest, attachment of property, professional investigation and fair trial, a few visible evidences of existence of any graft body was almost invisible. Both the Capital cities, Jammu and Srinagar have witnessed mushrooming of illegal and unauthorized constructions by the unscrupulous developers over the last one decade. The acts of corruption, negligence, indolence and complicity with the builders by the officials of the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) and Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC), JDA and SDA destroyed the concept of planned development and converted the cities into concrete jungles causing severe hardship to the inhabitants on one hand and severely affecting the ecology and environment on the other without being held accountable by the anti-graft bodies for the wrongdoings.
With the change of guards in the SVO and appointment of a person of high esteem as the State Information Commissioner, Aam Admi can repose the faith in the impartiality of both the organizations. I am keeping my fingers crossed!
(The writer teaches Sociology in University of Jammu)
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