Will study Act before taking call on Lokayukta appointment: Pant
The statement was made on the last day of the assembly session amid Congress members shouting slogans in the well of the House in favour of their demand
The Uttarakhand government continued with its ambivalent stance on the issue of the Lokayukta despite the Opposition members vociferously demanding in the assembly during the fourth day of its ongoing monsoon session on Monday that the anti-graft ombudsman be appointed at the earliest.
“We will study the provisions of the Lokayukta Act 2014 before taking a call on the appointment of the anti-graft ombudsman,” said parliamentary affairs minister Prakash Pant while speaking on the Call Attention Motion on the Lokayukta Bill that was tabled in the assembly following its scrutiny by the select committee about a year ago.
The statement was made on the last day of the assembly session amid Congress members shouting slogans in the well of the House in favour of their demand.
Moving the motion Leader of the Opposition Indira Hridayesh urged the Chair to allow a debate on the long pending Lokayukta Bill in the assembly, under rule 310. The speaker, however, allowed the discussion on the crucial issue under rule 58.
Demanding that the Lokayukta Bill be immediately passed by the BJP government Hridayesh said a debate on the issue was also necessary as it was the last day of the assembly’s monsoon session. Participating in the debate state Congress president Pritam Singh reminded the ruling BJP that it had promised during the 2017 assembly elections that it would enact the Lokayukta law within 90 days of coming to power.
“But it’s been one-and-a-half years since you (BJP) formed the government and the anti-graft law is still pending in the assembly even after its clearance by the select committee long back,” he said accusing the BJP government of referring Lokayukta Bill to the panel (select committee) without any rhyme or reason.
“It was a strange case that the (BJP) government referred the proposed anti-graft law to the select committee on its own instead of us (Congress) demanding for that; what was the hurry?” Singh said.
Stating that the people of the state want to know why the BJP government is not enacting the Lokayukta Bill he accused the ruling party of going back on its promise. “The government keeps parroting its policy of zero tolerance for corruption almost at every forum,” he said in a veiled attack on chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat. “So, what is it that prevents you from enacting the anti graft law? If enacted, it will only give traction to your policy of zero tolerance for corruption that you keep parroting,” Singh said.
He said if the government “is so serious why doesn’t it order a CBI probe” into the NH-74 scam.
“It was the chief minister who had announced on the floor of the House about a year ago that the BJP government at the Centre had approved his request for a CBI probe into the NH-74 scam,” Singh said. He alleged that soon union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari, in a letter to the chief minister, cancelled the latter’s request stating that a CBI probe would have an adverse effect on the morale of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) officials. “How can the morale of the NHAI officials ( who were assigned the task of widening of NH-74) be affected by a CBI probe if they have not done anything wrong?” Singh asked
Replying to the motion parliamentary affairs minister Pant said it was the then BC Khanduri-led BJP government which enacted a Lokayukta Act in 2011 that was duly ratified by the President of India.
“It was a very strong anti-graft law but the Congress government, which took over subsequently got it (law) repealed,” he alleged adding, it (Congress government) replaced it with a weak Lokayukta Act following some amendments. “We again brought in another anti-graft law which has been tabled in the assembly,” he said.
