Omar may drop 5 Ministers in Cabinet reshuffle in June

Govt’s anti-corruption talk has no credibility without action against Ministers, senior officials

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, May 25: Getting disturbing reports from different corners with regard to indulgence of nearly a dozen of his Ministerial colleagues in corruption, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is likely to shed his complex of the ‘coalition constraints’ and reconstitute his Council of Ministers next month. Sources in top echelons of the state government are expecting Chief Minister to send a “tough and terse message” by way of dropping five of the “most corrupt” Ministers and removing some of the “most indispensable officials” in a major reshuffle of Police and Civil Administration. Chief Minister is said to have begun the exercise of reviewing the performance of his ministers around completion of their first year in office.

Ten of the Ministers, who have reportedly surfaced negatively on the Chief Minister’s radar, include six Cabinet Ministers of the Congress party besides one Cabinet Minister and two Ministers of State of National Conference (NC). According to the serious inputs reportedly available with Chief Minister, over half-a-dozen of the Ministers had acquired substantial fortunes in less than a year of their assuming office. In a demonstration of high level of confidence, some of these Ministers have either built or acquired through other means palatial houses worth Crores of Rupees in posh localities of Humhama, Friends Enclave, Hyderpora, Baghat Barzullah and Rajbagh in Srinagar besides Gandhi Nagar, Chhanni Himat and Sidhra in Jammu.

According to the reports available, some of the mainstream politicians have not only raised immovable commercial properties but also discovered new methods to acquire assets while escaping notice of common people, Income Tax sleuths and anti-corruption watchdogs. In recent past, one of the Cabinet Ministers belonging to Congress party has been found to have paid Rs 3 Crore in cash to his in-laws who purchased a palatial house in the fashionable Rajbagh area and later got it transferred to his own name in the form of a “gift deed”. Another Cabinet Minister from NC has also been found to have purchased a multi-Crore property in the same locality in the name of his son.

If reports from the Union capital are also to be believed, quite a few of the Jammun & Kashmir Ministers have also acquired flats, valued in the range of Rs 1.00 Crore to Rs 2.00 Crore, in some prestigious colonies in New Delhi. A number of such assets are said to be benami---registered in the names of certain politicians’ relatives and friends. Non-existence of State Accountability Commission (SAC), that had been created ostensibly to make the corrupt politicians accountable, has made things easier for a few Ministers and their partners.

Interestingly, none of these mainstream politicians has made any mention of these clandestinely acquired properties either in their annual property statements or their IT returns. At least two of the Cabinet Ministers are said to be owners or partners of multi-crore hotels in Srinagar, Jammu and New Delhi.

Corruption among the mainstream politicians has touched new heights in the last 16 months of the coalition government. A female politician has been found to have purchased a huge house at a stone’s throw from CBI office in Jammu besides over 200 Kanals of land for developing a private housing colony in Zainakote area in Srinagar outskirts.

A senior leader of Congress party has been found to be the owner of six houses in Srinagar and Jammu, besides houses and flats in New Delhi. After raising properties worth Rs 40 Crore in Humhama area, near Srinagar Airport, this particular politician, has recently purchased 83 Kanals of orchard land at Heewudar village in Budgam district at the rate of Rs 2.75 Lakh per Kanal. He had earlier bought 60 Kanals of almond orchard land on Budgam Karewa at the rate of Rs 65,000 per Kanal. Reports said that the politician and his family were now trying to sell same land to the state government at the rate of Rs 17 Lakh per Kanal.

Blowing the whistle prominently include a senior leader and MLC of Congress party, Abdul Gani Vakil, who has publicly urged Chief Minister to force all of the mainstream politicians---particularly Ministers and legislators---to reveal the source of their income, overtly disproportionate to their known sources of income.

Well-placed sources said that Chief Minister’s biggest hurdle was the fact that he could not touch the Ministers belonging to Congress party. They said that the menace of corruption in high offices, according to credible reports, had assumed menacing proportions to the extent that Chief Minister was now likely to take the Congress President Sonia Gandhi into confidence and seek fresh list of her nominees to be inducted from the coalition partner. Change of portfolio is said to be possible in case of certain Ministers who were performing well but still indulging in corruption. As regards NC, sources said that Chief Minister could take the party patron, Dr Farooq Abdullah, on board before going for a Cabinet reshuffle next month.

Search has already begun in NC for replacement of the ailing Sheikh Nazir Ahmed as General Secretary. Name of a Srinagar-based Minister is mentioned as the first probable.

END