Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 29 : In a significant direction, the Ethics Committee of the Legislative Assembly has suggested some measures to the legislators to improve their image in the society including putting assets of the legislators on website for information of general public.
Headed by Prof Chaman Lal Gupta, MLA Jammu City West, the Committee observed: “it is the responsibility of political parties to prevent persons having criminal record from entering into politics and urged upon them to regulate the conduct of their members. It called for taking concrete measures for minimizing the role of money in the elections. The Committee submitted its report today in which it asked the legislators to develop moral values and decency to improve their image.
It laid stress on improving the image of politicians as some of them were implicated/involved in the corruption charges, which tarnish their image in the society as a whole.
The Ethics Committee stated that since Legislature was an important pillar of system “it was duty of every legislator to show transparency in their working”.
Asking the members to develop moral values, the Committee observed that morality or ethnics obviously starts from the school level.
“The morning prayers was one of such norm which boosts ethics in the schools which has been ignored nowadays and the children being the future representatives of the country could guide the society in a better way”, the Committee said.
It suggested election reforms to check criminalization of politics. It called for putting assets of the legislators on website for information of the general public.
The Committee also suggested that members should declare their assets, liabilities and those of their family members and put them in public view on website.
The Ethics Committee of the Assembly comprised 13 members of all political parties. The Ethics Committee is headed by Chaman Lal Gupta, who was expelled from the BJP on the charges of cross voting during the Legislative Council elections held on April 13 last year.
Meanwhile, the Committee of Public Accounts of the Assembly has observed that the Social Welfare Department has failed to implement properly the schemes formulated to provide nutrition to the children belonging to the poor families.
In its report tabled on the floor of the Assembly, the Committee pointed out that despite releasing less then projected allocation, the Department could not utilize/spend even the same which proved its inefficiency and the responsible officers should be taken to task.
The report mentioned that the Committee had asked Directors Social Welfare-both from Jammu and Kashmir regions, to appraise it about the total number of Anganwari Centres, allocation and expenditure on the nutrition but they could not provide the proper figures before the Committee.
Taking cognizance, the Committee observed that though the government was not in a position to provide the projected allocation due to certain reasons yet the released amount could not be spent by the Department resulting thereby in lapse of huge amount in every financial year since 2008-09.
“Such a tendency deprives the deserving poor children from the nutrition”, the Committee observed and added that Director Social Welfare Kashmir, has, however, told the Committee that balance amount has been sent to the Deputy Commissioners (DCs) concerned for revalidation. The Committee has also directed the Department to furnish the breakup of the funds sent for revalidation to the DCs in the next meeting.
The Committee observed that it was prime responsibility of the Department to suggest ways and means for utilization of available funds and address the difficulties they are facing on this account.
Regarding 1700 cases of Anganwari workers pending disposal in the court of law, as stated by the department, the Committee directed the officers concerned to apprise the modus operandi adopted by them to settle these cases and to furnish the breakup of the cases along with the amount spent on litigation as of now.
It was also stated in the report that the Department could not satisfy the Committee regarding the item wise questionnaire sent by the Assembly Secretariat.
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