Why Lokayukta fails to check public servants’ corruption

PART-I

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: Assam needs to follow Meghalaya and Nagaland to bring the corrupt public servants to the book. Without such a step, the State government’s tall talks on zero tolerance against corruption will continue to remain a slogan.

The Lokayukta was set up in Assam in 1985 to deal with complaints on public servants’ corruption. The Lokayukta is an independent mechanism for investigating allegations of corruption against Ministers, MPs, MLAs, IAS and IPS officers among others. However, unlike Meghalaya and Nagaland, the Lokayukta in Assam has been reduced to a toothless entity. The Assam Lokayukta and Upa-lokayukta Act-1985 has many lacunae and it is not in sync with the Central Government’s Lokpal and Lokayukta Act.

There had been a directive from the Centre to the State governments to amend their respective Lokayukta and Upa-lokayukta Acts in sync with the Central Act. Both Meghalaya and Nagaland governments amended their respective Lokayukta and Upa-lukayukta Acts, but the Assam government has not. A draft for amendment to the State Lokayukta Act was prepared way back in 2017, but it has not been tabled in the State Assembly as yet.

What makes the Lokayukta in Assam toothless? Since its inception in 1985, there has been only one Lukayukta in Assam. It was the first one. After that, there have been only upa-lokayuktas because of some lacunae in the Act. According to the existing Lokayukta Act in Assam, the eligible candidate for holding the post must be a former Chief Justice of a High Court. However, the many former Chief Justices of High Courts are not eager to hold the post of Lokayukta. The Central government Lokpal and Lukayukta Act has, however, relaxed the criterion to any High Court judge for holding the post.

A lokayukta should have its own investigating and prosecution wings so that it does not have to depend on the State police force. However, the Lokayukta in Assam does not have any such wings of its own. Besides the State Lokayukta lacks other facilities like adequate staffers and own office building. Lack of investigation and prosecution wings has made the Lokayukta depend on the State police force and other technical institutions for investigation. It just submits the findings of investigation to the Chief Secretary for further action.

Had it been equipped with its own investigation and prosecution wings, it could have directly filed cases against the erring public servants in the special Court.

* To be continued

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