This was the limit of corruption, deceit and sleaze!
By: M S Nazki
Two stories from Balakote and Mankote both Tehsils in Sub Division will stun you because these are unthinkable episodes of graft and bribery!
=‘The truly scary thing about undiscovered lies is that they have a greater capacity to diminish us than exposed ones. They erode our strength, our self-esteem, our very foundation. That is what the people in Balakote and Mankote are realizing and feeling as the monster of corruption is ripping them apart and that too brazenly. Even the disabled and the poor are under its wretched claws!’
-‘Two small-time government officials, both clerks (Babus), both sly in all respects, went on a fleece spree of two individuals, one was a disabled man and the other a laborer. The graft asked was from a few hundred of rupees to a thousand which for the poor still is a great amount’! But this can happen in the Tehsils of Sub Division Mendhar as it has been happening down the ages!’
-‘It is not for the first time that it has been brought to the notice of authorities but the action on the offenders has just been ordinary. A dismissal from service for corrupt specimens would have set appropriate examples but that was never to be’!
-‘The Sub District Magistrate may be thinking that he is doing a perfect job but unfortunately he is not. Maybe he is not being informed by his coterie of advisers which he has or he is ignorant of what is happening on the ground but in bothe the eventualities he is wrong. It’s time that he scrambles himself to get on to the ground in Balakote and Mankote and check as to what is happening where and who is doing what as far as the administrative officials go!’
-‘Deputy Commissioner Poonch announced his arrival by doing things that had never been done before as he got after the corrupt officialdom. But it seems that intensity has been lost. These two incidents may seem trivial but they definitely showcase the intent of the lower ranked officials in the administrative circuit in district Poonch!’!
-‘ The first incident was a situation where a disabled man from Dhargaloon, Tehsil Balakote confronted a clerk who demanded rupees four hundred and fifty for issuing him a disability certificate. What happened after that I will tell you later in the story but the disabled man had no other option but to pay because the adamant clerk was not prepared to give him the certificate until and unless he was given his pound of flesh and this is what the disabled man Javid Ahmed told me, ‘what irritated me most in that entire situation was the fact that I wasn’t feeling humiliated, or annoyed, or even fooled. Betrayal was what I felt, my heart broken not just by a guy I trusted to help me out, but also by a person who I considered a true friend.’ Asking money from a person who is disabled? Rather blasphemous but in this case a reality!’
-‘In yet another incident that happened in Mankote again in Sub Division Mendhar. Mukhtar Ahmed, resident of Ghani, Mankote found himself in a terrible situation when the clerk issuing the labor cards demanded rupees one thousand. Though for most it would not be much of an amount but for the poor man it was. He was left option less as Javid was and while speaking to me he was very expressive as he said, ‘why does not the government in the Union Territory declare a total war on thirteen enemies you cannot see -egoism, arrogance, conceit, selfishness, greed, lust, intolerance, anger, lying, cheating, gossiping and slandering. If you can master and destroy them, then you will be ready to fight the enemy you can see. Jammu and Kashmir is being destroyed by all these thirteen and we the poor confront all of them almost every day!’ He was not wrong, Mukhtar was telling the truth!
-‘It was great when the Hon’ble Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha said that he will uproot the stumps of corruption but honestly speaking it prevails in a mega way and in almost every department of the government and that too the lowest level. These two incidents proe it all the way in District Poonch’! Is there a way out? I will leave it to the readers to ponder over, so far at least I have found none!
-‘When people cheat in any arena, they diminish themselves-they threaten their own self-esteem and their relationships with others by undermining the trust they have in their ability to succeed and in their ability to be true.’ These two incidents would prove this’
I The story of Javid Ahmed:
This man from Dhargaloon, Tehsil Balakote, Sub Division Mendhar approached the clerk who had been given the charge of issuing a disability certificate. The document is needed to get whatever perks the Government gives to the disabled personnel. The clerk was prepared to give him the certificate provided Javid gave him Rupees four hundred and fifty which was in excess of the fees that the UT government had notified. Obviously an argument had to occur and it did but in the end Javid was left with no option but to pay which he did. But while leaving Javid told the clerk, ‘brother give be the government receipt as the money hopefully would go into the treasury. The clerk did give him the but how much he deposited in the government treasury has to be checked. Simple derivation here is it is better to lock up your heart with a merciless padlock, than to believe in someone who doesn’t know what they mean to you. The Babu in question here could have done a lot for Javid but he did not and the disabled man thought that the former would be helpful but he was not. Just another sly man wearing a cloak of corruption!
II. The tale of Mukhtar Ahmed:
This one is from Mankote where Mukhtar went to get a labor card, the one profession from which the poor manufacture their daily earnings. But before he lined himself up before the clerk Zakir he never knew that rupees one thousand was the rate fixed for the labor card. Mukhtar again like Javid was left optionless. The card he desperately wanted and the money he did not want to part with because he had kept it for his children fees for the school they study in. But in the end he had to give it and walk away broodingly saying to himself, buy a gift for a dog, and you’ll be amazed at the way it will dance and swerve its tail, but if don’t have anything to offer to it, it won’t even recognize your arrival; such are the attributes of fake friends which the government has deployed to serve and help the poor in District Poonch.
A long time back a friend of mine in the Indian Army told a story about a date with a guy who he was really excited about. This was in a government office they were about to meet, basically both were childhood mates but from that day onwards they were not destined to be. My friend reached his office in the secretariat in Jammu. The rendezvous was great but my friend did not find his friends demeanour and attitude great. He got up and walked out of the office and his friend scampered after him. He then called him, begging his forgiveness and giving some excuse. My friend told him to get lost, telling him that he only gets one shot with him, and he blew it because he was corrupt and he had seen him indulging in corrupt practices in the office! Wish most could be like my friend! Unfortunately they aren’t!
