The 43rd Report of the Committee on Estimates of the Lower House of the Legislature was submitted five months ago to the Government for implementation by the concerned departments. Among other things, the Report of the Committee has identified 170 commercial units in Jammu and 200 of these in Srinagar that have been allotted to influential businessmen or people with strong political links in contravention of procedures and rules. The House Panel in its report had emphasized that the Department of Estates, the controlling agency of these units, retrieve the units to ensure that the State exchequer did not lose enormous revenues the units are capable of generating. All of these units are situated in most prestigious and commercially extremely lucrative sites in two cities. Ordinarily, these units would fetch millions of rupees by way of rentals, which however is being lost every month by the Government.
The Estates Department has cared two hoots for the recommendation of the House Panel. In the first place, disregard of the recommendations of the House Panel indicates arrogance of the authorities at the helm of affairs. The Estates Department thinks it is all powerful and cannot be touched by any organ of the state or any authority that runs the state. This is direct assault on good governance. We have the Services Act in our State which stipulates punitive action against a Government official in case of dereliction of duty. The reports coming from knowledgeable sources say that the Deputy Directors of Estate in Jammu and Srinagar both evaded direct answer to the questions of the media persons who wanted to elicit information from them why the Department did not implement the recommendation of retrieval of the commercial units. The fact that these responsible officials did nothing more than giving vague and elusive replies shows that there is much that has not come to the notice of the general public. Obviously powerful bureaucrats, politicians and other people with moles in the Government are bringing pressure on the Estates Department to put the House Panel recommendations in cold store. What is more, the Estates Department has even circumvented the recommendation that the rentals of the units should be revised in accordance with the market rate. The bureaucracy is entrenched to the extent that it is not even willing to let the rentals be revised while under Government order rentals for other Government accommodation has been revised upwards.
All this shows that a section of State administration considers governance as private property which they can manipulate in whatever way they like. It is privatization of the Government by a handful of influential and powerful people. Obviously, it reflects the weakness of the top echelons of civil administration as they are not able to curb the burgeoning authority of vested interest.
We would like to alert the Government in good faith that allowing bureaucracy too much of space would recoil on it and people will resent it forcefully. It is tantamount to giving special privileges to a small class in the society that works for only self aggrandizement and not for national good. Defiance of the directives of the House Panel means challenging the authority of the Legislature, and also of our democratic dispensation. We also exhort the Government to put an end to this diarchal administration in the State and let the supreme authority of the legislature rule the roost.
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