Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 17: Eradication of corruption and bringing dishonest public servants and other so-called ‘influential’ people responsible for fraudulent ways of plundering public assets and money is centre to efficient governance. Corruption was well established and in a manner institutionalised in Jammu & Kashmir.
This was expressed by Ajey Bharti, former MLC in a statement issued here today.
He said distinct provisions of Constitution were misused to shield dishonest and inefficient people, even in proven cases of fraud and unethical practices action was never taken, adding no one paid any heed to pain and suffering of people and widespread anguish and anger among the masses was either ignored or curbed by misusing power.
“Therefore clampdown in Jammu and Kashmir State Cooperative Bank Limited (JKSCBL) case by Government is a welcome step and in right direction. For decades this menace of corruption was actually used by internal as well as external forces to trigger disturbances and bring in death and destruction at large scale in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Appointment of new official Board including the Chairman and the Managing Director in JKSCBL after detecting major irregularities and violations of norms is welcome step,” Mr Bharti maintained.
He said, “It is hoped that the persons responsible for wrongdoings will be prosecuted and punished under law and the public money looted will be recovered also. It is also important to put in place a transparent and accountable mechanism to ensure no such thing is allowed to happen in future. Strict punishment to culprits is one strong deterrent in such cases”.
Bharti further said duplicitous sanctioning of huge amount of public money in favour of a non-existent co-operative society was too serious an issue practically not possible without political patronage, adding that similar sale, purchase, encroachment and grabbing of land belonging to displaced people and deceitful manipulation of ownership papers has happened on large scale in almost every district of Kashmir.
He said land belonging to Temples, Shrines, Social institutions and Trusts etc has also been appropriated in many cases against every law and norm.
“Administration must constitute an empowered team to look into all such matters and return all such immovable property to its rightful owners at an earliest,” he appealed.
Follow our WhatsApp channel