There appears to be no decline in the offences related to money matters in the shape of financial frauds, defalcations, scams and embezzlements in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir. It matters a lot even if such economic offences may not always be involving huge funds and therefore, in consonance with the commitment of the Government to show zero tolerance to corruption, financial frauds and scams, the requisite ”Economic Offences Wing ” in the Anti Corruption Bureau of Jammu and Kashmir should have by now been all functional and effective both to swing into action where required as also proving as a deterrent. The fact of the matter is that it is not. It is despite that sanction was duly accorded to its setting up two years ago by the Government. It is also a fact that there was need to have more coordination between General Administration Department and Anti Corruption Bureau in strengthening the concerned independent Economic Offences Wing . Where have things gone slow and why there is no mechanism in place to ensure that decisions were implemented in time and if not and due to which specific reasons , the same could be resolved effectively.
Every action whether positive or negative and especially related to matters of governance has its impact accordingly which means, those who have already committed economic offences or some others who unfortunately may be ”on the job” are likely to feel emboldened especially the critical time factor being of tremendous import . That implies any deferred action or even a cognizance taken quite late in matters related to economic offences may not result in convictions and recoveries especially when a person in service is already out on account of superannuation and persons other than in service similarly having made things turn ”favourable” to them. Spate of banking and financial frauds, credit cards frauds, lottery and chit funds frauds, money laundering, private finance companies’ frauds, jobs recruitment scams and the list is long , effectively controlling these and taking strict legal action plus making recoveries are very much important for maintaining a just economic equilibrium, rid the financial victims of the wrangles and manipulations of cheats as also protecting the country’s financial system and general security.
On the contrary, we find its own decisions taken two years ago not being implemented by the UT Government of Jammu and Kashmir as how much the Government appears to be very serious to take on the economic offenders can also be gauged by the fact that as against creating and appointing 56 personnel for the said Economic Offences Wing and sanction for these posts by the Finance Department too having been accorded, excepting posting a Superintendent of Police , nothing further has been done in respect of recruiting of the rest of 55 persons to lend due support and teeth to the said Wing.
Why has no notification for recruitment of the requisite posts officially made so far in spite of a decision having been taken two years ago . Resorting to austerity measures and other steps of saving on Government funds may be justified in the ordinary course but in matters where a structure has to be raised, all strong and effective , to deal with the loot of money hence loss to the public exchequer, there appears to be no wisdom in resorting to that measure when it comes to raising an important department like an effective independent Economic Offences Wing. We feel instead additional powers and strength by means of an effective intelligence system to be provided to the said Wing would make things not easy for economic offenders to manage get away from being detected and legally booked.
The argument , if not an alibi, that there were provisions and measures in place already in the Anti Corruption Bureau to deal with economic offences also, is hardly convincing as a separate wing would not only be dealing exclusively with the specific cases but would entitle the personnel to get adequately trained at specific institutions like the CBI , RBI and other institutions as that was the requirement to make the Economic Offences Wing very responsive and effective. Hence, the UT Government is urged to look into the issue and arrange take effective steps towards setting up of a strong , effective and autonomous Economic Offences Wing in the Jammu and Kashmir Anti Corruption Bureau.
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