Jammu, Aug 18: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday said that he has asked the Chief Secretary Madhav Lal to prepare a dossier of corrupt officials to expurge the administrative set up.
“I have directed the Chief Secretary to prepare the list of corrupt officials so that suitable action is initiated against them. I don’t know whether the former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had prepared any such list, but, if it is there, it does not hold any relevance in view of retirement of many officials,” Omar told reporters here.
 Highlighting the initiatives taken by his government to tackle the corruption, he remarked, “There were two significant measures taken this year to weed out corruption. First, conduct of successful Panchayat elections and second , implementation of Public Services Guarantee Act, which will be helpful in dealing the day to day corruption at lower level,” Omar said.
 Asked about the delay in completion of projects, he said, “We do review projects and we do face slippage on the account of prevailing situation in Jammu and Kashmir. For instance, we do face slippage in the project of super-specialty hospital Jammu, firstly, due to Amarnath land imbroglio and secondly, the project is being implemented by the central agency, CPWD. By and large, projects are being implemented in time-bound manner and if there is any slippage, we examine it and if we found any laxity on the part of officials, we do take action against them.”
 Replying another query, Omar said that an inquiry was being instituted to ascertain the causes for sinking and damage to recently constructed bridges near Purmandal and Rehal area in Bishnah.
 In response to a question, Chief Minister said that “illegal colonies” were regularized in Jammu on political considerations. “People have illegally constructed houses on nallahs and these illegal colonies were regularized on political considerations. People should cooperate with the administration and avoid raising illegal constructions,” he said.
 Over the possibility of further extension to Justice Sagheer Ahmed Working Group report, he said, “The committee is dealing with complex issues and it holds great importance keeping in view the aspirations of all the three regions. We don’t want committee to present a biased report and if it wants more extension, I may think on it.”

Lastupdate on : Thu, 18 Aug 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 19 Aug 2011 00:00:00 IST