Jammu, Feb 11: Jammu and Kashmir governor N. N. Vohra finally issued appointment orders of
 Kuldeep Khoda IPS, (Retd) as the Chief Vigilance Commissioner and RK Jerath IAS, (Retd) as Vigilance Commissioner in the State Vigilance Commission, which is expected to be functional in next couple of days.
 Official sources said that the governor, who is the appointing authority under State Vigilance Commission Act 2010, finally issued the appointment orders on Monday evening. “The orders were communicated to the state law and General Administrative Departments for further necessary action”, sources said.
 “These appointments shall take effect from the date the officers assume charge of the posts in the State Vigilance Commission”, the order reads.
 It was reliably learnt that Khoda and Jeerath will be administered oath in next couple of days so that they can finally assume the office. “The commission will be functional only when the two officers assume their office and administration of oath is one of the mandatory requirement under the Act”, sources claimed adding, “If situation improves in Valley we can expect that the Commission is made functional by this week”.
 The appointments were recommended by the state government, last year, but the proposal was returned by the Raj Bhawan, which raised certain queries on the candidatature of Khoda and MS Khan, who was also recommended for the post of Vigilance Commissioner. He, however, later withdraw his name citing personal reasons.
 As already reported by Greater Kashmir the government now contemplates to start the process afresh to find replacement of Khan for making the Commission fully functional. The state is also considering to go through the panel of 36 former and serving bureaucrats prepared by the General Administrative Department “to find the suitable candidate for being appointed as second VC”, sources claimed.
 The Jammu and Kashmir State Vigilance Commission Act came in force in 2011 after the state Assembly passed the bill to set up a commission in Jammu and Kashmir. However, the Government started the process of appointment of Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) and Vigilance Commissioners to the State Vigilance Commission on February 5, 2012 following issuance of guidelines for the appointment.
 The Commission has been empowered to inquire or cause inquiries to be conducted into offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, Samvat 2006 by public servants, employees of  corporations, government companies, societies and local authorities owned or controlled by the Government.
 The process for establishment of the Commission, however, faced many hurdles after a Selection Panel, headed by the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah recommended a panel to the Governor for the appointments. Following a ‘disputatious’ meeting of the SVC selection panel on May 28, the government had recommended the name of Khoda for appointment as CVC while the names of former Financial Commissioner, R K Jerath and former Secretary to government Muhammad Sayeed Khan were recommended for appointment as two Commissioners.
 However, the recommendations were returned to the Government by the Governor, who raised certain queries. The Government again forwarded the recommendations to the Governor with clarification on the queries raised by Raj Bhawan.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 11 Feb 2013 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 11 Feb 2013 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 12 Feb 2013 00:00:00 IST