After the downgrading of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state to a union territory and withdrawal of 70 year long special status to it in August last year, the promises of huge industrial investments by the incumbent central government had generated hopes of more employment avenues through a process of industrial expansion but the people in Kashmir had no idea of becoming victims of the worst kind of extortionism through loot of their own natural resources in water bodies. Taking away the leasing rights from the residents of Kashmir and giving them to people of the other parts of the country with the powers of subletting their mining allotments to locals through members of Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRI) is an attempt to put in place a mechanism of extortion and open loot of natural resources in Kashmir. Though members of Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRI) are by no standards of understandabilities stakeholders in the mining of the construction materials the allotments to which till July end last year used to be decided by the executive engineers of the irrigation and flood control department, but just to appease panchs, sarpanchs and heads of block development councils (BDCs) the government plans to involve them in the process of the mining of construction materials. Even naives can understand that PRI members will use their power in the mining allotment of construction materials for the purposes of extortion as the government itself is aware about the family, financial and professional backgrounds of all the panchs, sarpanches and heads of block development councils (BDCs) both in Kashmir valley and as well as Jammu region.
Opening flood gates of extortion for panchs, sarpanches and heads of block development council would deepen the corruption down at the grass roots levels which can’t be curbed by any investigative and accountability agency of the government after a short gape of two years.
Giving the panchs, sarpanchs and heads of block development councils (BDCs) the powers of issuing short permits for mining contracts of the construction materials would be tantamount to open flood gates of extortions as their role in overseeing the working of schools in villages few years ago forced the government to withdraw the decision after complaints of harassment of teachers by the panchayat members flooded the directorates and district offices of the school education department. Already the involvement of the outsiders in the mining of construction materials has doubled the prices of construction materials in valley as the powers to sublet the allotments have been brazenly misused by the outsiders giving lease rights in recent months amid COVID-19 spread in Kashmir. Simply a bidding process exclusively for Kashmir residents would restore the transparency and accountability in the allotment of the mining of construction materials. After ruining a glorious state of yesteryears through several arbitrary executive orders, the government controlled by babus wielding unbridled authority now tends to ruin the work culture in the engineering departments tasked the job of the development key priority sectors. Opening flood gates of extortion for panchs, sarpanches and heads of block development council would deepen the corruption down at the grass roots levels which can’t be curbed by any investigative and accountability agency of the government after a short gape of two years.
