When Mufti Mohammad Sayeed-headed Coalition Government took charge in Jammu and Kashmir people had great hopes in seeing improvement in governance, which Mufti had proved earlier in his 2002 stint as Chief Minister. People wanted to see a less corrupt and better administrated government and the first signs came alive when government sacked 63 civil servants at one go on the grounds of corruption and non-performance. The shock came when some of them where exonerated of charges and reinstated after some months. The whole exercise looked like an eye wash. It looks government is fooling itself and not the people or the affected one. It was in last July 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. Today, neither there is Mufti Mohammed Sayeed nor there is any government in Jammu and Kashmir and the battle against corruption has been left at its first step only. 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 to check and report. All this has been going on during the duration of National Conference-Congress rule for the last two decades and even before that too.
