*Rs 225 cr loss just tip of an iceberg, fraud much bigger
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 8: In a veiled attack on the State Government, Principal Accountant General (Audit), J&K, S C Pandey today said that every possible attempt was made to cover up the biggest ever land scam by denying vital information for the audit and Rs 225 crore loss to the exchequer, which has come to the fore in the test checked cases, was just the tip of an iceberg.
According to Mr Pandey, several officers in the Government hierarchy maintained hostile attitude towards numerous communiqués from his office and this clearly indicates that they were not in the favour of Roshni Scam being unearthed completely. He also hinted that many heads will roll if the scam is fully unraveled as the Roshni Scheme has turned out to be beneficiary mainly for the non-deserving people due to the negative role played by large number of officers, who were closely associated with the implementation of the much touted scheme. Among the beneficiaries of the scheme are headquarters of National Conference and Congress at Srinagar.
Interacting with the media-persons here this morning, Mr Pandey said, “we started reviewing implementation of Roshni Scheme in 2012 by initiating pilot study in Budgam district and accordingly the Financial Commissioner Revenue was approached for furnishing details about district wise transfer of land and list of beneficiaries. Unfortunately, this vital information was denied to us till today”.
“The Financial Commissioner Revenue only wrote a letter to the Divisional Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners asking them to furnish information about the Roshni Scheme for audit but these officers preferred to deny information instead of ensuring compliance of the Financial Commissioner’s directive”, the Principal Accountant General informed.
He further informed that Revenue Department was repeatedly requested for furnishing details of Cabinet decisions on the Roshni Scheme including the Rules whereby huge chunk of agriculture land was given free of cost but those at the helm of affairs in the Department maintained hostile attitude.
“This compelled us to prepare draft report on the basis of outcome of test checked cases in six districts of the State and the same was submitted to the Government on July 31, 2013 for response but again there was no communication from their side despite the fact that this was also brought to the notice of Chief Secretary and Finance Secretary”, Mr Pandey said, adding “due to non-cooperation from the Government we decided to publish the report with a final notice to the Revenue Secretary in the month of January this year”.
Stating that Roshni Scheme Rules, which were beyond the scope of the Principal Act, were responsible for large-scale irregularities in the implementation of the scheme, the Principal Accountant General said, “when information about approval to the Rules was sought from the Government we were simply told that audit should not question Cabinet decision”, adding “on the basis of such a response on the vital aspect conclusion can easily be drawn about the intentions of the Government vis-à-vis Roshni Scam”.
In response to a question, Mr Pandey said, “Secretariat is the controlling authority over all the field units and officers but when there is casual response from the Secretariat itself what would be the response of the field officers can easily be gauged”. In this way, the Principal Accountant General hinted that there was attempt to conceal the information about the scheme at the Secretariat level in order to prevent unraveling of the scam.
When asked why the CAG has not recommended action against those involved in the biggest ever land scam in Jammu and Kashmir, Mr Pandey said, “we have clearly established the fate of the scheme. The intensity of the loss which the State exchequer has suffered due to the land transferred till date under the scheme can easily be worked out”.
“Now it is up to the Legislature to decide what action is required to be taken in this case. After all the Rules, which became the tool for misuse of the scheme, were framed by ignoring the Legislature”, he said, adding “even Governor is seized of the issue as it was only after his approval the reports of CAG were tabled in the Legislature”.
“Moreover, State Vigilance Commission is also conducting probe into the scam”, he further said while hinting that many heads will roll if the scam is fully unearthed as Rs 225 crore loss detected in test checked cases was just tip of an iceberg.
Replying to another query, the Principal Accountant General said that in 99.9% audit findings there was no response from the Commissioner/Secretaries of the concerned departments despite grant of reasonable time for the same. “None of the Commissioner/Secretary can claim that our reports are surprise to them as we used to send drafts reports to them for response within four to six weeks”, he further said, adding “in case of Roshni Scheme, we gave more than six months to the Government for furnishing response to the draft report”.
About the financial health of the State, Mr Pandey said, “the State Government has failed to achieve the benchmarks under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act”. In this way, the Principal Accountant General has proved as wrong the statement made by the Finance Minister, Abdul Rahim Rather on the floor of Legislative Assembly mentioning that targets prescribed under the FRBM Act were being complied with.
Terming huge expenditure on salaries and pensions and power deficit as areas of serious concern, he said, “it is due to these two areas the State is facing financial crisis years after years”. “The Plan funds are being diverted to Non-Plan activities at the cost of developmental activities”, he said, adding “due to 80% expenditure of total Plan funds on salaries, pensions, interest and purchase of power the development of the State is being compromised”.
He said that a scientific study was required to be conducted to ascertain whether the existing administrative structure was required to be curtailed to reduce the Non-Plan expenditure.
About the Centre-State financial relations, Mr Pandey said that due to non-applicability of Central Service Tax in Jammu and Kashmir the State is not getting around Rs 500 crore share from the pool of Central Taxes. He, however, said that decision in this regard was required to be taken by the State Government and not by anybody else.
The Principal Accountant General, however, appreciated the State for improvement in VAT and Stamp Duty Collection. “There is an increase in collection of these taxes but still the State has a long way to go to reach the satisfaction level”, he added.
He suggested the State Government officers against considering CAG as only fault finding body and said, “Our job is to detect mistakes and make necessary recommendations to the Government for remedial measures”, he added.
Manish Kumar, Accountant General (Accounts), Pushpa Devi, Deputy Accountant General (Revenue), B K Mehra, Deputy AG (GS and SS) and Tsewang Tharchin, Deputy Accountant General were also present during the press conference.
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