Lauding Governor Satya Pal Malik’s decision to bring the J&K Bank under the purview of the RTI Act, the Chief Vigilance Commissioner and the State legislature, and to categorize it as a PSU, Union Minister DrJitendra Singh has alleged that over the years, the Bank has been blatantly “misused” by the State’s ruling families and their close henchmen.
He hailed Governor’s decision as the “one in tune with the Modi Government’s commitment for maximum transparency in the functioning of such institutions”. Speaking to media persons soon after his arrival here today from the union capital, Dr Singh said, over the last four decades, “J&K Bank had been used as an unaccounted private property to benefit the members of ruling dynasties and their henchmen”.
He said, the autonomy of the Bank was exploited to “fill the coffers of precisely those who otherwise swear by autonomy for the State”.
He called upon the Governor to carry out an audit of the J&K Bank and place in public domain the names of “illegitimate beneficiaries, loan defaulters, over – assessed mortgages, unverified investors and irregularities following the announcement of demonetization”.
Alleging that those who are raising hue and cry over Governor’s decision are precisely the ones who need to be investigated, Dr Singh said, “It is a matter of deep mystery as to how some of them, with no apparent source or meager source of income, made overnight fortunes, and acquired properties across the metro cities of India, Dubai, UK and elsewhere”.
He said, those who are opposing the Governor’s decision by invoking the name of Late Maharaja Hari Singh who had established the Bank, need to be reminded that the Maharaja had set up the Bank to benefit the poorest of the poor and for empowerment and autonomy to the last man in the last queue, and not for allowing the loot of the public exchequer.
Supporting Governor Malik’s “crusade against corruption”, Dr Singh called upon impartial high-level probe into some of the “most infamous scams during recent regimes of the Congress and its allies, including the Roshini Land Scam, Jammu Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) Scam and Yousuf Shah extortion/murder scam”. Later, at a meeting to review the progress of various power projects in the Chenab region, Dr Singh was briefed that the issues relating to the PakalDul Project had been resolved and the work tender for the tunnel part of the project will be floated in the next few weeks, a statement said.
Dr Singh issued instructions that 1,000 MW PakalDul Project, among the biggest in North India after BakhraNangal Dam, should be “sought to be completed before the stipulated timeline, so that it can become functional around the time of 75th anniversary of India’s independence in 2022”.