State Government would have citedfinancial reasons as the stumblingblock and the main handicap, had thedemand of constructing community and indi-vidual bunkers in areas in close proximity tothe Line of Control and the InternationalBorder been faced by it from the sufferingborder dwellers. Now that, as back as in 2017Union Ministry of Home Affairs havingaccorded sanction to the construction of13029 individual and 1431 communitybunkers in Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Rajouriand Poonch districts at a cost of Rs. 416crore, problems extraneous to finance havecrept in the shape of the State Governmentnot facilitating physical and financial audit ofthese bunkers. It is also beyond one’s dis-cernment to find a blatant variation in thedecision of the Government in respect of hav-ing these bunkers undergo the process ofaustere and strict audit while simultaneouslynot facilitating the same by extending the req-uisite support base. Home Department should appoint a teamto undertake the detailed and hard labouredaudit and inspection of these bunkers scat-tered across the designated districts. Not onlythe audit, the designated team should findout the reasons of the pace of work foundquite below expectations as also the poorquality of construction reported in respect ofmany bunkers where gaping cracks had sur-faced despite the fact that the required fundswere kept at the disposal of the StateGovernment for construction of these muchneeded bunkers for the border dwellers whohave to face the direct brunt of the hostilitiesof Pakistan.Though the decision of conducting physicalinspection and audit etc was taken earlier fol-lowed by appointing the Inspecting and AuditOfficer in March this year, with the stipulationthat the entire job was to be completed withina period of 20 days which includes submis-sion of the detailed report, so far nothing con-crete has moved on the ground which meansthat the said decision has remained confinedto paper work only. Home Department beingthe Nodal Agency responsible for the entirejob of construction of bunkers and all associ-ated issues related thereto including utiliza-tion of funds under Security RelatedExpenditure, it becomes its prime duty tohave the audit and inspection completed atthe earliest even by sparing some of itsemployees for the job. It should be realisedand appreciated that such an approachadopted by the administration can only betermed as half-hearted, the effect of whichwas going to be on the utilization of suchbunkers by the suffering people of our borderareas.It will not be out of place or context to men-tion that the ‘culture’ of audit and inspectionsis neither encouraged to be made an inalien-able part and parcel of the working system ofthe State Departments by the successiveGovernments nor its importance in findingout areas of slippages, doubts, ambiguitiesetc in the system given due importance toarrest irregularities, embezzlement and cor-ruption and this scenario has apparently beengaining a foothold in the system. The StateGovernment, on any date, cannot claim thatall its departments have periodically beenaudited and the audit reports attended to andirregularities addressed depending upon theirnature of severity. The issue of non-reimbursement of Rs. 22crore for pilot project of construction of 60bunkers in Jammu which was not approvedby the Union Home Ministry also continues toremain unresolved. We would, therefore, liketo impress upon the concerned authorities inresolving the issue in the interests of the Government itself to place at rest variousspeculations about deciding for audit but notpractically facilitating it.
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