By OUR STAFF REPORTER
Dehradun, 1 Nov: A special seminar on “Integrity, Vigilance, Good Governance and Beyond” was held at the ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation (ICAR-IISWC) here, on 31 October, as part of the ongoing vigilance awareness week. Dr PR Ojasvi, Director, IISWC, inaugurated the seminar. In his summary, he described the problems of corruption as well as the ramifications on government employees. He said that rules and laws were made to facilitate workers and performance and not hinder works. During the discussion, Dr Ojasvi said that rules and regulations had to be made in a way that they protected the performers and deterred corruption. RC Verma, General Manager (HR), ONGC, Delhi spoke on the subject with reference to office administration, stores & purchases, and functioning. He said that genuine mistakes or slip ups involving even large amounts of money could be pardoned, but, intentional lapses, financial irregularities and corrupt practices even regarding meagre amounts would face serious consequences. He said the economics of corruption is very insignificant and desperately negative. Corrupt practices slowly spoiled the individuals concerned but also infected others and society. Rajender Singh Rawat, Inspector, Uttarakhand Vigilance Directorate, explained various provisions of anti-corruption rules and laws and their recent updates. He briefed on the procedures followed in trap cases. Baljeet Kaur, Finance Officer, Wildlife Institute of India (WII), spoke on existing financial regulations to encourage transparent payments and thereby avoid irregularities. Earlier, Dr M Muruganandam, Principal Scientist and Vigilance Officer of the institute, welcomed the participants and guest speakers from different organisations. Corrupt persons’ carbon, water and energy footprint would always be higher due to the fact that they consume the share of others as well. The presentations and discussions highlighted that, in any organisation, 10% employees are law-abiding and honest and another 10% are corrupt. The remaining 80% were neutral and would be greatly influenced by either of the extreme 10%. Here, the role of vigilance came to safeguard the neutral 80% and law-abiding 10%, besides streamlining the problematic 10%. All the Heads of Departments and senior-level scientists including Dr/s NK Sharma, Harsh Mehta, Bankey Bihari, Charan Singh, DR Sena, Rajesh Kaushal, besides the staff and administrative officials including SK Gajmoti, CAO, and Gajanand Yadav, AO, and technical officers of the institute, and Manoj Istwal, social worker and blogger (Himlalayadevelopment) participated in the discussion. In the series, the second session with open-to-all invitation is being organised at the Institute in the forenoon of 2 November.