M A I N   N E W S

A Tribune Special
J-K security funds go to wrong hands
Swati Chaturvedi

New Delhi, May 23
Crores of rupees spent as secret service funds in Jammu and Kashmir every year are being misused. These funds, controlled by the Intelligence Bureau and the Army, are never subjected to any audit so far and are going to wrong hands — from television stations to “funds channelled to militant informers”.

Consider the magnitude of the problem. An IB operation traced the leakage of funds from corpus meant for the government all the way to Afghanistan where it was used to purchase rocket launchers, which were then used to target the Army in Poonch sector. This is not all. An NSA report says that this money has even funded militants’ love affairs and children in Srinagar.

The state accounts for a whopping part of the central annual plan outlay and a large part of this is security related - from secret service funds to expenses for the CRPF and the Rasthriya Rifles.

At a recent meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security, a senior Congress minister raised the issue of the funds being misused in J&K and sought answers from home minister Shivraj Patil, who claimed that he was looking into the complaint. Sources reveal that the reply did not satisfy any of the CCS members. One of the ministers present said: “Mr Patil had his usual beatific expression. The answer was vague and he failed to come to grips with the enormity of the problem.”

Sources say that even the Cabinet and some senior ministers have been raising the issue. Since there is no parliamentary or audit over-sight for the funds being pumped into the state, J&K siphoning off seems to be an inevitable part.

The Comptroller & Auditor General has also raised serious questions about the funds. And, the recent CAG description of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme as a complete failure has raised similar questions for government funding in the state.