Every year, the Vigilance Awareness Week (VAW) is celebrated between October 30th to November 5th. This coincides with the birthday of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first Home Minister of India who was known to be a man of high integrity. The Central Vigilance Commission-CVC is observing Vigilance Awareness Week 2023 from October 30th to 5th November with the theme, “Say no to corruption: Commit to the Nation.”
The Vigilance Awareness Week is an annual outreach measure to create mass awareness about the importance of integrity and ethics in public life.
The observance of Vigilance Awareness Week commenced from Oct 30th with the administering of the integrity pledge by Central Vigilance Commissioner Praveen Kumar Srivastava and Vigilance Commissioner Arvinda Kumar at Satarkata Bhawan in New Delhi to the officials of Central Vigilance Commission.
Cancer of Corruption
In Jammu & Kashmir, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha administered ‘Integrity Pledge’ to the officers of Special Security Force (SSF) and the Raj Bhawan staff in Srinagar. Administrative Secretaries, and Deputy Commissioners also attended this pledge-meet through virtual mode. LG Manoj Sinha after the integrity pledge said:
“To eliminate the cancer of corruption, all the stakeholders have an important role to play. Corruption-free J&K is our vision as well as the mission.”
After reading out the ‘Integrity Pledge’ and administering the oath to officers and staff LG Manoj Sinha said that integrated and collective approach was required to deal with corruption as it impedes the growth and undermines the moral fibre in the society.
He also highlighted the steps taken to improve public service delivery in all the organisations, paving the way toward good governance in J&K.
“We should take this opportunity to renew our commitment to achieve the goals of promoting efficiency, accountability, and probity in public life for a better future,” he added.
Activities by CVC
Early this year, the Central Vigilance Commission-CVC had sought the participation of all Central Government organisations to undertake a three month campaign (16th August to 15th November) on preventive vigilance activities as focus areas. As a means of eliciting public participation while also disseminating information on vigilance matters, the CVC has also launched a quiz on corruption related issues. In the coming days and weeks the CVC is also issuing three important publications namely:
A) Best Practices in Vigilance Administration
B) Increasing transparency through the use of technology
C) Public Procurement: Challenges and Way Forward.
The idea behind coming up with these publications is to disseminate information regarding effective and innovative practices undertaken by different organizations to serve as a point of reference and a way forward. The Central Vigilance Commission-CVC has solicited the participation of all the citizens to come together in bringing about transparency and accountability in public administration.
Corruption in J&K
As per the official figures made public by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), there was a continuous decline in the number of corruption cases in J&K between the years 2018 to 2020 but in the last 3 years the corruption cases have witnessed an increase. Around 94 cases filed by the J&K Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) under the Prevention of Corruption Act and related sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) in 2022. These are the figures based on FIRs registered by ACB but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the corruption graph was down between 2018 to 2020.
In 2018, around 82 cases were filed by J&K Anti Corruption Bureau, 73 in 2019 and 71 in 2020. During this time very few traps were laid by the ACB due to lockdown post article 370 abrogation which was followed by the COVID-19 pandemic from March 2020 onwards. In the year 2021, many corruption cases were registered by ACB and the graph was up to 94 as ACB got much active post first wave of the pandemic wave between 2021-2022. It still continues to lay traps to arrest government officials red handed.
The corruption cases as per NCRB data mentioned above include 29 trap cases, 15 cases of disproportionate assets, 2 cases of criminal misconduct and 48 other cases. The report revealed that 386 cases of corruption were pending in J&K by the end of 2020 besides that four cases were reopened for investigation, two cases were transferred to other agencies. The data further reveals that in 29 cases final reports have been submitted, 55 cases have been charge -sheeted and 398 cases were pending by end of year 2021.
Why more acquittals and less convictions
In 2020, only one person was convicted by the Anti Corruption Court in J&K and was awarded punishment. Recently, this author had access to some information related to corruption related acquittals and convictions in eleven anti-corruption courts in J&K. There are only Special Anti Corruption Judges appointed in Srinagar and Jammu and rest of the nine courts don’t have designated judges. The Anti Corruption cases in Rajouri,Doda,Udhampur, Kathua, Pulwama, Anantnag and Baramulla are looked after by the judges posted in local District and Sessions court who already have a lot of workload.
Due to the absence of separate special anti-corruption judges, the corruption cases filed by ACB in these courts take years to get judgments. Very less convictions are made and even corrupt officers get acquitted as well.
As per the data provided by J&K ACB under RTI Act 2005 to this author, there were only 78 Govt officials convicted in the last 13 years i.e between 2010 to 2023 in J&K. During the same time 156 Govt officials who were accused of corruption by ACB were acquitted by the respective Anti Corruption courts. This means the graph of acquittal is three times more than conviction ? In Special Anti Corruption Court Jammu, 75 accused Govt officials were acquitted and 55 were convicted; in Special Anti Corruption Court Srinagar which includes cases from Budgam and Ganderbal as well, 42 Govt officials were acquitted and only 18 were convicted between 2010-2023. .
Ironically, in Rajouri Doda and Kathua not even a single Govt official has been convicted in the last 13 years by Anti Corruption Judges whereas one each Govt official was acquitted by these three designated courts.
In Pulwama Anti Corruption Court, nine accused officials were acquitted and 2 were convicted. Similarly, in Anantnag, six officials were acquitted and one Govt official was convicted in between 2010-2023. In Baramulla, Anti Corruption Court which includes cases from Kupwara and Bandipora as well, 11 Govt officials accused of corruption by ACB were acquitted and only one official was convicted.
Conclusion
Before the commencement of Vigilance Awareness Week, J&K Government celebrated “Corruption Free J&K Week” or “Bhrashtachar Mukt J&K” between September 4th to 10th . Such activities do create awareness about corruption and its negative impacts on society but the government also needs to ensure that people, especially public servants who are involved in corruption, are taken to task in a time bound manner.
I had written a piece a few months back mentioning how a corrupt police officer was convicted after 15 years. There are not only delays in getting corrupt government officials convicted by Anti Corruption Courts but the graph of acquittals is much higher than the convictions. Infact, the J&K Anti Corruption Bureau is doing its job efficiently but due to lack of designated Judges in our eleven (11) Anti Corruption Courts in J&K, the trial gets delayed.
The government also needs to do a study on why there are so many acquittals vis a vis corruption cases and if there are loopholes on part of the prosecution.
Let us now move beyond the Integrity Pledge and counter the menace of corruption with an iron fist. Corruption not only undermines good governance but also wastes the taxpayers’ money and citizens lose the confidence in public authorities which is not good for our democracy.
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