Government promoting corruption, rues MY Tarigami

Lashing out at the National Conference led Coalition Government for its “failure” to curb rampant corruption in J&K, the CPI (M) state Secretary M Y Tarigami Thursday alleged that “instead of tackling corruption, the state government is promoting it.” “Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah had on the Floor of the House said that his government will remove corrupt officers. Then it was said that the list of corrupt officers has been prepared. I would like to ask Omar Abdullah what happened to that list. Ironically , instead of sacking these corrupt employees , the government is placing them on key positions in the administration which indeed means promoting corruption culture in the state,” Tarigami alleged. He said: “We have time and again raised the issue of empowering the State Accountability Commission but instead of giving it authority, it has been rendered defunct. The Vigilance GKOrganization has failed to deliver. Time has come that Accountability Commission should have its independent organizations that will investigate graft cases.” Addressing his party workers at Pratap Park here, Tarigami said “in our state people are being charged to pay for darkness. “We have to pay power tariff despite no electricity available and whenever people try to lodge their protest, police is brought to muzzle their voices.” He demanded that state government should issue ration to the people living below poverty line (BPL) at the rate of Rs 2 per kg. "The present poverty line figures of Rs 26 a day for an adult in rural India and Rs 32 in urban India continues to be the basis for access to Public Distribution System (PDS), which means larger sections of the poor will be legally excluded from the right to food," he said. He said the Centre is planning to pass Food Security Bill which will make Public Distribution System (PDS) dysfunctional. “Our central leadership is protesting against it, we will also join them,” he said. Later, Activists of CPI (M), led by Tarigami, staged a demonstration against the proposed food legislation and continuous rise in prices of essential commodities in the country. Carrying banners and placards, the CPI (M) activists and supporters assembled outside the Press Enclave here and tried to take out a march to submit a memorandum to the office of Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir. However, the march was not allowed by policemen.

(Courtesy: Greaterkashmir.com)