Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 4: State Vigilance Commission today recommended to the Government quick implementation of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Scheme for disbursement of cash under various Central and State Government schemes.
This recommendation was made after Director, Vigilance Organization and officers of Organization brought to the notice of the Commission that there are large number of cases of alleged embezzlement and irregularities under investigation and enquiry in the Organization.
While giving brief of various complaints, enquiries and investigations, Director Vigilance revealed that most of the cases pertain to illegalities committed in disbursement of scholarships to students, pension to aged under National Old Age Pension Scheme (NOAPS), payments being made to widows and destitutes under National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) and Integrated Social Security Scheme and procurement of supplementary nutrition for children.
“The cases have been detected where payments have been shown made under scholarship and other schemes to non-existent students/persons, more than one payment to same student, procurement of food items at exorbitant rates, besides misappropriation in NOAPS, NSAP and ISSS”, Director said.
It has been detected that in number of cases the benefits of these schemes have not reached the actual beneficiaries and in many cases, less payments have been made to the deserving than shown in the records. The Commissioner Secretary, Social Welfare Department mentioned that a lot of progress has been achieved in implementation of DBT scheme and the exercise will be completed early so that on line payment is made to all beneficiaries by next year.
It is pertinent to mention here that 431 complaints of corruption have been referred by Vigilance Organization to Social Welfare Department during past five years, out of which action has been initiated in 181 cases. Besides, there are 6 cases where Vigilance Organization after thorough enquiry found that strong evidence exists for action against delinquent officials and recommended regular departmental action against them.
In addition, there are several cases under investigation and preliminary enquiries with the Vigilance Organization and 17 numbers of complaints are being enquired by the Commission. Further the Commission has also directed the Administrative Department to ensure that immediate instructions are issued to all concerned so that tenders for procurement are put on net and rates finally accepted for procurement are displayed prominently on website so that public in general remain informed and the payments being made do not exceed the market rates.
The Social Welfare Department was also directed to ensure speedy action on various pending complaints pertaining to appointments in Anganwari centres on fake educational certificates and ensure that appointments are made by following transparent procedure and proper advertisement.
To ensure transparency, the Social Welfare Department was directed to put up list of all Anganwari and other centres on the website, which should also display the enquiries and cases pending and the status of these should be updated on regular basis for information of the public.
Meanwhile, the meeting was chaired by Kuldeep Khoda, Chief Vigilance Commissioner and was attended by Dr R K Jerath, Vigilance Commissioner, Sheikh Owais, Director Vigilance Organization, Sanjeev Verma, Commissioner Secretary, Social Welfare Department, Alok Puri, IGP (Vigilance), Gazanfar Ahmad, Director Social Welfare Department, Kashmir, M S Choudhary, Director, Social Welfare Department, Jammu, M A Hakak,Chief Vigilance Officer and Additional Secretary, Social Welfare Department, Tabassum S Kamili, Departmental Vigilance Officer and Deputy Director Social Welfare Department, Kashmir, Narinder Kour, Departmental Vigilance Officer and Deputy Director, Social Welfare Department, Jammu and other senior officers of Vigilance Organization & State Vigilance Commission.
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