Asserting that rampant corruption prevailed in the state, the CPI(M) today urged Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra to act against corrupt officials.
“Corruption has engulfed almost all the institutions in the state. The state administration run by the governor should tighten the noose around the officials involved in corrupt practices,” CPI(M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami said in a statement today.
Tarigami said there was a perception among people that from recruitment to transfers and from allotting government works to providing basic amenities, everything was on sale.
“There is a sort of inertia that has crept into the offices, where nothing moves till there are some illegal gratifications to be made. Even our universities, police and other important institutions have not remained immune to this menace,” the Kulgam MLA added.
He said a lack of transparency in the administration meant the menace had assumed monstrous proportions.
“The failure of successive governments to tackle rampant corruption has meant that it has become institutionalized in many respects”, he said.
He said some half-hearted measures were taken to curb the menace. “One of the steps was to fire officials indulging in corrupt practices and they were declared as dead wood,” Tarigami said in the statement.
However, most of the officials terminated on such charges were later restored by the courts, he said adding it showed either the charges against them were false, or the government took half-hearted measures to pursue these cases in the courts.
The CPI(M) leader said the administration must activate and empower the anti-graft bodies including State Accountability Commission (SAC), State Vigilance Commission (SVC) and State Information Commission (SIC) to bring accountability and transparency.
Apart from unresolved political issues, lack of governance had always been an issue in the state, Tarigami said. He said eradicating graft could help in restoring the shattered confidence of the people in government institutions.
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