law: governor

Jammu, Mar 6 (UNI) Jammu and Kashmir has taken a lead in pioneering effective anti-corruption law by passing legislation for attaching property acquired by corrupt practices, governor Lt Gen S K Sinha today said.

Inaugurating a regional workshop on 'improving governance' sponsored by transparency international india here, Lt Gen Sinha said under the amended Act, properties of six officials valued at crores of rupees had been attached while cases of 12 more officials were in the pipeline.

He complimented Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad for launching a crusade against corruption and hoped that this drive will yield the desired results.

''We are making an effort to fight corruption,'' he said while referring to the ranking of Jammu and Kashmir as number two corrupt state after Bihar by transparency international over two years ago.

He also appreciated the drive launched by the state vigilance organisation (SVO) under Dr Ashok Bhan to fight the scourge of corruption.

Lt Gen Sinha dwelt in detail on high degree of integrity among political leaders a few decades ago, which witnessed non-existence of corruption at higher levels. ''unfortunately, this trend changed a bit with changing times,'' he said, referring to the survey showing India at number 70 among 163 corrupt countries the world over.

''India has self-governance and still much is to be done for good governance,'' he added.

UNI