The Legitimate Civil Society
Eventually the mission is successfully accomplished. The premier financial institution Jammu and Kashmir Bank is brought under the ambit of RTI. The struggle to bring it under the law of accountability and transparency began way back in 2009 when a renowned RTI activist Nasrullah filed the petition in State Information Commission challenging the decision of bank authorities for refusing to divulge the details.
The SIC questioned the approach of Bank authorities and directed that the institution shall be brought under the ambit of act. However, the bank which had set the hegemonic trend in Jammu and Kashmir moved to the High Court and stayed the order.
The case is still pending in the High Court even after the Government few months back issued an order to invoke RTI act on bank. The bank was still hoping against the hope to evade the law of transparency prompting hundreds of people in Jammu and Kashmir to build the pressure on authorities to clear its position. Long time battle yielded the fruits and the public pressure eventually paid off for thousands of people who were left dismayed and disappointed by the functioning of bank. This is good omen for all those activists who are serving as watch dogs to government machinery. Over the past few decades the state run machinery in Kashmir valley especially and state in generally was left defunct given to political instability. However, on the other side it has given an alarming rise to nepotism and corruption in almost every department.
This precedence had left many departments defunct while many others were plugged into extreme financial crisis. The civil society groups may have been boasted off with this development and shall take this mission forward to other institutions of public importance. The bigger issue is Waqf board which is succumbing to the malfunctioning of officers and have no official accounts of the funds it generates across the Kashmir from thousands of shrines.
Given to the charity and donations that accumulates from the shrines it shall have been building institutions parallel Shri Amarnath Shrine board. There is demand for the audit of this department running with massive corruption and nepotism under the nose of government. Similarly, other public institutions like Jammu and Kashmir Cements Limited, SIDCO, JK Minerals and many other public sector undertakings are running under the same influence what JK Bank was through all these years.
As the prosperity and progress of economy in Kashmir is the need of hour, it is evidently becoming a responsibility of all those civil society groups, intellectuals, think tanks and general masses to stir a campaign and make them accountable. Subsidies and concessions can be a timely feature to bail out but there is need to work out for the permanent solution to bring our economy on rails.
The institutions like JK Minerals, JK Cements, SIDCO, and SICOP have a positive impact on our economy given to its huge potential of providing employment and boasting up the local trade. However, they almost crumbled under the massive mismanagement and corruption. A massive and consistent campaign is required by the public to overhaul our system. The will power can only hold the political class accountable and Kashmir needs more people like Nasrullah who refused to succumb to mighty corridors and set the precedence for the transparency and accountability in system.
