Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Dec 23: After a long wait, the State was going to have the first ever State Vigilance Commission (SVC) with the beginning of New Year. The Commission was expected to be made fully functional with the oath of Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) and two Vigilance Commissioners in second half of January 2013.
“Hopefully, before January 26 (the Republic Day), the SVC would be fully functional’’, official sources told the Excelsior.
They said the constitution of the SVC was in the final stage.
“As this was for the first time that the SVC was going to be constituted, various legal and official formalities were required to be completed. The entire process was time consuming and the officials of General Administration Department (GAD) were on the job to complete entire process at the earliest. Anytime in second half of January, a notification was expected to be issued by the Government announcing constitution of the SVC’’, sources said.
It was on November 9 that Governor NN Vohra had approved the names of Kuldeep Khoda, former Director General of Police (DGP) as the first CVC of the State and R K Jerath, who retired as Financial Commissioner (Revenue) and MS Khan, who had retired as Commissioner/Secretary in GAD early this year, as Vigilance Commissioners. Mr Khoda had retired from the services on May 31 this year.
It was more than one and a half year ago that the State Legislature had approved a bill for constitution of the SVC in the State. However, constitution of the SVC was delayed due to finalisation of names for the posts of SVC and VCs.
Sources said various legal procedures, rules regarding functioning of the SVC, deployment of staff to the SVC on deputation from police etc and various other similar formalities were being given a final touch before the Government formally announced constitution of the CVC. The CVC and VCs would be administered oath of office and secrecy before that take over their new postings.
Of two VCs, one would be Incharge of Kashmir division and another for Jammu division. Both of them would report to the CVC.
The rules for constitution and working of the SVC have already been framed.
A high level committee had approved the appointment of Mr Khoda as the CVC and Mr Jerath and Mr Khan as the Vigilance Commissioners in a meeting on May 28 this year. However, Leader of Opposition Mehbooba Mufti, who was one of the members of the selection panel, had objected to the appointment of Mr Khoda and submitted a detailed dissenting note, which the Government had incorporated along with its recommendation to the Governor for making appointments to the CVC.
The Government had forwarded its recommendations to the Governor on June 4 while on the basis of Mehbooba’s dissenting note, the Raj Bhawan had returned the file to the Government on June 15, raising some queries, which the Government had subsequently replied giving clean chit to Mr Khoda on the objections of the PDP president.
The Governor had finally given his nod to the proposal for appointments of Mr Khoda as the first CVC of the State and Mr Jerath and Mr Khan as VCs for Jammu and Kashmir divisions respectively.
Mr Khoda had retired on May 31 as the state police chief while Mr Jerath, an IAS officer had retired as Financial Commissioner (Revenue) and MS Khan as Commissioner/ Secretary General Administration Department (GAD). Mr Khoda was an IPS officer while two others were IAS officers. Mr Jerath was a Direct Recruit of IAS while Mr Khan was KAS officer conferred with IAS.
The selection panel, which had approved the appointments for the posts of CVC and VCs, comprised Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar and Leader of Opposition Mehbooba Mufti (the PDP president). Ms Mufti had objected to the appointment of Mr Khoda and gave a dissenting note, which the Government had incorporated while forwarding the panel to the Governor.
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