At one point of time, the SAC received four complaints a day. But as there was no effective redressal the complaints dried up but 309 complaints of corruption remain against present and former Ministers, sitting and ex-MLAs and bureaucrats pending for disposal by the end of March 2011. Apart from politicians, there are cases pending against IAS, IPS, IFS and KAS officers, former Vice-Chancellors of Universities, a former Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Bank, former Chief Engineers and formerDirector General of Police (DGP). This situation points to the extent of invisible and informal political interference in dealing with corruption cases.

Again, the upcoming State Vigilance Commission (SVC) is widely believedto be at the mercy of the executive because its chief and two members will be appointed by the cabinet on the basis of the recommendation by the chief minister, two ministers and leader of the opposition, sometimes the same people whose interests could directly be hit by action against political corruption. What would be helpful is if its chief and members could be appointed and removed by a non-political authority like the President in the case of the central vigilance commission at the national level.

Tariq Naqshbandi, a former judge said J&K is the only state that resisted fast track courts. “Fighting corruption needs fast track court system but I do not know if the government will permit it.”

Dr Muzaffar Bhat, a driver of the RTI movement in the state says though the motive of the right to information law is to discourage corruption, it cannot be achieved without strong anti-corruptioninstitutions. “The government has admitted that in Kashmir alone there were 300 works implemented without any tender but who will take action?” he asked.

The political parties accuse each other of corruption in the state Legislature all the time. A legislator once came in thehouse with a CD showing a government officer ‘accepting bribe’.Investigations revealed that it was one lobby that funded the sting operation to get the official removed, have one of their own placed there and makemoney.

Since 2005 the SAC has received 309 – 221 in Jammu and 88 in Srinagar – complaints against present and former ministers,sitting and ex-lawmakers and bureaucrats. Not a single case has been disposed off.So much for creating body after new body for fighting corruption.

The government is observing 2011 as a year against corruption, but is itself sleeping over scores of requests by the SVO for sanctioning prosecution.Under the existing law, the SVO cannot prosecute any official unless the employer, the government permits it.

Apart from SVO, the state police crime branch is investigating cases of corruption and misappropriation of public funds in which a senior minister and senior PDP Leader Molvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari has been indicted.

Molvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari

In a shocking case three IFS officers were booked in various cases of misuse of public funds for projects funded by the World Bank under Integrated Watershed Development Programme (IWDP). The WB refused to extendthe plan when serious cases of corruption and use of funds for political activities was detected.

The rate of conviction in corruption cases is very low even when, the SVO sources revealed, a few hundred gazetted officers are facing trial in courts in different corruption cases.

The state has only two Special Judges hearing anti-corruption cases, one each at Jammu and Srinagar. This has encouraged corruption at the lower levels unabated. The latest survey (2010) by Transparency International says: “On an average, a BPL household paid Rs 557 to one or other service in the last one year (2009) as bribe,” the report said.

Corruption in public life is so pervasive in the state that chief minister Omar Abdullah said inside the Legislative House that “restoration of peace in the state and catching the bull of corruption by its horns will be my cherished objectives in 2011.”

The state police and the security establishment under him, combined with many other factors, that may not have been a consequence of his actions and decisions, may have achieved a tentative peace so far but there are no startling successes in his ‘fight’ against the gargantuan of corruption. Sacking a dozen government employees for corruption may be nice but the moral authority for sacking a minister from his cabinet is another matter.

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