First government sacks them on the grounds of corruption and non-performance and then after some months reinstates them by clearing all the charges. The whole exercise looks like an eye wash. It appears government itself is fooling itself and not the people or the affected one and all the fight to eradicate the malady looks half hearted with no positive results. It was in July last that 63 civil servants were sacked at one go, sending a message that government won’t tolerate deadwoods and is bent upon giving transparency in governance. Even this type of cleansing exercise was carried out during Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s earlier stint as Chief Minister. With the decision to reinstate some of the tainted ones, government has shown its own sincerity to clear the much prophesised corruption-free administration. What is intriguing is the ‘quick action’ procedure undertaken against these small players leaving aside big players including some politicians who are roaming freely. The main feature of this perpetuated corruption in ‘public dealing counters’ in government offices is that all the concerned officers are solely united behind their motive and a sort of wholesale contract is smoothly run by them. There are middlemen between these ‘counters’ and the interested parties in the respective cases. They serve the process on behalf of their parties, make payments and get the job done. Strict laws should be made to deal with the corrupt practices providing for the termination of service, suspension and stringent penalty for dereliction of duty. Declaration of property and assets of the government employees should be made compulsory and routine and surprise inspections/raids be conducted by special sleuths of Enforcement Dept. to check and report. All this has been going on even during the previous National Conference-Congress rule for the last two decades and even before that too. By reinstating them on the plum postings how government is going to give transparent governance is everybody’s guess. Fighting corruption has become an academic exercise. Corruption has become part of our DNA. It has engulfed almost every section of the society. It is a sorry state of affairs. There is no dearth of scams like Roshni scam, CA and PD scam, rural development scam and backdoor recruitment scam etc. Everyone knows without political patronage such scams cannot be operatable.
