After exposing the Rs 25,000 crore ‘Roshni’ scam in its annual report ended March 31, 2013 Principal Accountant General (Audit) J&K on Saturday told mediapersons that instead of submitting official records for audit scrutiny he was ‘advised’ by the State Govt not to question the Cabinet decision on the crucial matter.
Interacting with mediapersons after a detailed presentation on the annual CAG report, Subash Chander Pandey flanked by senior officers told reporters, “When the CAG began the process of scrutinising the implementation of Roshni Act and the Rules between November 2012 and July 2013 to assess whether there was any deficiency in the formulation of the Rules and also irregularities in the implementation of the Act, the Revenue Department didn’t extend required cooperation to the CAG in furnishing information/records despite series of letters from the auditors.
He said, “No one in the Government cooperated. Even it was advised by the Government not to question the policy decision of the State Government. I was told by the department that it’s a policy decision taken by the State Cabinet. Audit should not question the Cabinet decision”.
Pandey said,” it is ironical the Government had not even taken approval of the legislature before amending the Act. He said we were told after taking the Cabinet decision the State legislature was duly informed about it. Dr Pandey, however, clarified informing the legislature was not enough the Government should have taken the approval from the State legislature. He said the amendments which were done in the Act in 2007 were irregular in nature and totally against the Act.
According to the CAG report, of the 3,48,160 kanals of land approved for transfer, major portion (3,40,091) kanals was categorised as “Agricultural” and subsequently transferred free of cost. Interestingly, no stamp duty was charged while transferring such a huge agricultural land. Speaking on the issue of non-cooperation and alleged cover-up by the State Government, Dr Pandey revealed the State Government presented different set of information on the floor of the Assembly.
He said when I had sent them a signed copy of the minutes for their approval there was no response from the State Government. It all shows that there is reluctance to be forthcoming with truth and sharing the information. He said after submitting the draft report in July 2013 we waited for almost six months instead of waiting for routine six weeks time for their response but when they failed to furnish their reply we went ahead and submitted our report.
He said, “We even requested them to show us the record files of 2001, 2004 to learn how did they made the Act, they framed the rules”. He said we went to the legislative Assembly Secretariat but were informed that the 2001 record was burnt down in fire. The revenue department came out with some photocopies in January this year but even some pages were missing there too.
He said we didn’t get a very comfortable feeling that we are facing a Government which is forthcoming with facts and figures.