Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Nov 1: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has asked the State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) to prepare a comprehensive list of KAS, KPS and “other senior officers’’, who were involved in ‘corrupt practices’ or had been rendered as ‘dead wood’ to summarily dismiss them from services or suggest other kind of action, whose offence in corruption was minor.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the Chief Minister has asked the Vigilance Organisation to prepare the lists as early as possible and submit them to the Chief Minister’s Secretariat for scrutiny followed by action.
“This time the Government has issued instructions to the Vigilance Organisation to submit the list of KAS and KPS and “other senior officers’’ and not the lower ranking officials for taking action against them by the Government. The action could include dismissal from services of the officers, who have completed their stipulated tenure in services and disciplinary action against the officers, who were yet to complete 20 years of service’’, they said.
Previously, the Government had retired some officials but they were in the lower ranks, sources admitted saying that it didn’t send a message to the top officers as complaints continued to pour in about involvement of “senior officers’’ in corruption.
“It was on the basis of these reports that the Chief Minister has asked the SVO to prepare the list, on the basis of its reports against senior officers only like KAS, KPS and others and submit it to the Chief Minister’s Secretariat as early as possible’’, sources said.
The Vigilance Organisation being the major anti-corruption body in the State had earlier also been assigned the task of preparing the list of corrupt officers and dead wood but then only “lower ranking officers’’ were cleared by the Government for removal from the services.
Sources said this time it would be ‘very specific exercise’ confined to senior officers as the Government wanted to send a message that it could act tough against those found indulging in corrupt practices or have turned dead wood (non-performers). It was in this context that the Government has asked the Vigilance Organisation to identify limited officers from KAS, KPS and “other seniors category’’ for removal from the services.
According to sources, since the officers, who had completed 20 plus years of services could only be dismissed, the Government has asked the Vigilance Organisation to recommend the action which could be taken against the officers, who have not been completed their stipulated period of service.
Sources said the Government itself had reports of corruption in various Government Departments and Public Sector Undertakings causing enormous inconvenience to the common man.
They added that the Government hasn’t put any bar or restricted number of the officers, whose name could be submitted by the Vigilance Organisation for action for their involvement in corrupt practices. The Vigilance Organisation could use its own resources to identify the corrupt officers and could also take assistance of some well meaning officers from civil and police administration for the purpose.
The Government’s missive to the Vigilance Organisations comes close on the heels of sanction of permission in many pending cases of the Government officials for prosecution, sources said.
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