From the Desk of Commissioner

 

The SVO mainly deals with offences of criminal misconduct, abuse of official position, loss to the state exchequer and conferring of undue benefit to undeserving persons in violation of norms and codal procedure. In the last 6 years substantial progress has been achieved in the tackling corruption at the gross root level by targeting Govt. departments which are providing various services to the general public. A number of cases of misappropriation of Govt. funds, exorbitant purchases, wasteful expenditure and misappropriation of subsidy to weaker sections of the society have been registered and successfully investigated. Most of these cases are sub-judice in the court of law. 

          Last 5 years have seen tremendous flow of Govt. funds in various infrastructure areas such as Rural Renewal Mission, National Rural Health Mission, PMGSY etc. Large Corporations and Business Houses are now involved in construction of mega projects. Instances have come to notice that there have been allegations of conferring of undue benefits in allotment of Govt. works at the decision making level and in certain areas loss to the state exchequer has been caused a large scale. Our endeavor is to tackle corruption in higher places and at the decision making level and unearth the nexus between unscrupulous policy makers and the businessmen. 

          Huge amounts of Govt. funds have been pumped into rural and far-flung areas of the state in various programmes such as NAREGA, IAY, Rural Water Supply, Road connectivity, Afforestation and PDD which are generally out of the immediate reach of the SVO. Our offices being located mainly at Srinagar and Jammu remain confined to towns leaving the remote and far-flung areas untouched. To increase the presence of SVO we have already established a new branch for Samba and Kathua districts besides opening sub-offices at Rajouri and Doda. We are also planning to open a sub-office at Anantnag and Baramulla in the next couple of months. The institutions of Departmental Vigilance Officers has been established but is not functioning to the desired level. A proposal for posting of full time DVOs for corruption prone departments is already with the Govt. With the appointment of such permanent DVOs we will get a great help in conducting enquiries involving departmental misconduct and violation of codal procedure. 

          The strength and infrastructure available with the SVO is meager when compared to the requirement. The number of Investigating Officers has not increased for the last about 12 years while as the increase in the Govt. establishment has been more than 200% since then. The accommodation at Srinagar is not appropriate to our needs. The Govt. has been very kind enough to purchase a plot of land for SVO office at Pirbagh. Funds for the construction of this office have already been released by the MHA, Govt. of India under Police Modernization grants and we are starting construction shortly. Proposal for construction of sub-offices has already been sent to the MHA, Govt. of India. 

          Vigilance investigations are mostly document oriented. Examination of records becomes some times very difficult without the help of modern gadgets. We are planning to procure machines and equipments which can help us in the in house analysis / scrutiny of documents.