‘Up to people to use arsenal against corruption’

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SRINAGAR: Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah Tuesday said that his government equipped the people with required law-arsenal to wage war against corruption and nib this evil in the bud.

We empowered people legally to scan the government functionaries from Chief Minister to the lowest ranking official by re-constituting Accountability Commission (AC), constituting State Commission under Right to Information Act (RTI) and the Vigilance Commission (VC). We enacted Public Services Guarantee Act (PSGA), put in place Third Party Monitoring (TPM), e-procurement and e-tendering in the government departments, he said and added that any citizen of the State can bring any functionary of the government under full public scan right from the Chief Minister to the lower official. This is the visible anti-corruption initiative taken by my government which cannot be eclipsed by false propaganda, he asserted.

In a statement Omar while talking to people at Tral, Pulwama and Khudwani in South Kashmir during the interaction meetings with various sections of the society and National Conference workers today, said that his government not only constituted independent institutions to keep vigil on government functioning but gave teeth to the defunct ones so that people are empowered to bring the corrupt to the book and help in bringing transparency in the functioning of the government besides making people legally empowered to demand public services delivery in a time bound manner.

My government by introducing PSGA in the State became among the top few States in the country to have this kind of law in force for which various public agitations were spearheaded including the one by Anna Hazare asking the Parliament to enact the similar law in this regard, he said and added that bringing all functions of the administration and all the functionaries of the government under full public scan is his endeavour and the task in this direction is continuous.

It is now up to the people to be pro-active to use the law-arsenal provided by my government to them to unearth corrupt practices and be masters of the situation by themselves, he said maintaining that the coalition government during the last about five years have introduced and implemented historic and innovative initiatives to curb the corruption through the medium of common people.

The Chief Minister said that to pull the State out of the morass of corruption it got wallowed during the tenure of PDP regime led by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was a difficult task for him to reverse, as such, he concentrated on the issue through a different angle of involving people and strengthening the institutions as a right medium to curb the chances of corruption which started yielding positive results on ground.

PDP flourished corruption to such a degree that Jammu and Kashmir was tagged as the No. 2 corrupt State in the Country. Had this party continued to control the affairs of government it would have made Jammu and Kashmir No. 1 corrupt State in the world. Thanks to the efforts of Mr. Azad that he put halt to the race of corrupt practices started by PDP in its regime in the State, he said and added that his government introduced the mechanism of empowering people and strengthening institutions to nip this evil in the bud and made functioning of the government transparent and lucid.

I need not to remind you of the institutions my government constituted to curb the corruption and empower people legally to expose corrupt practices as you are already aware of these, but I refer these initiatives only to tell you to make best use of the laws and institutions your government created for you to keep vigil on the functioning of government and be whistle-blowers as also eradicators of corruption, he said.

Omar Abdullah said that false propaganda and mud-slugging for pity politics itself describes the persons who indulge in this kind of politics. We believe in truthfulness and principle based politics and deceiving people through tactical attitudes and politicking has never been our grain, he said and added that he would continue to nurture politics of public service through transparent and truthful means of policies.

The Chief Minister asked the general people particularly elders and youth to extend their support to him to galvanize the political scenario with the principle based politics devoid of hypocrisy, emotional blackmailing, regional bias, religion divide and caste, creed or sect consideration.

The Chief Minister said that youth is his strength and the hand of affection over his head by the elders is torch of guidance to him to lead the State towards socio-economic and political stability and welfare. He assured them that he would continue to work for the holistic development of the State and facilitate vehemently for political addressing of the political issues of Jammu and Kashmir at all levels.

Talking to National Conference workers in various indoor meetings, the Chief Minister who is also Working President of National Conference (NC) took a dig on the PDP Patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeds statement that PDP does not want power and said that when the leadership of this party is itself not interested for power then voters should give them befitting reply by keeping them out of the government permanently. He said such statements of the PDP leadership unveil the duality of this party which people have understood fully.

The Working President NC asked the workers to remain connected with the people at grass roots, render them selfless service and uphold the high principles of public service, amity, brotherhood and equitable development of all regions irrespective of any consideration nurtured and taught by Sher-i-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and Madr-e-Meherban. He asked them to make people aware of the glaring performance both on peace and development fronts made by the government during the last 5 years.

Our report card is full of public service and development schemes. We ensured equitable development in all areas and treated all the people equally whether they had voted for us or not, he said this is NCs trait and we will carry forward this trait in future also. Yes, we fight elections to get power for serving the people, we have done it in the present tenure and will continue to do the same in the next tenure, he said adding that his party do not fool people by telling them that it does not fight elections to attain power. This double standard is the characteristic of PDP, he added.

The various deputations including Bar Association, Fruit Growers Bodies, Auqaf Members, Development Forums, Imams of Mosques and others also met the Chief Minister and apprised him of the matters relating to their concerns.

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