Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi may claim to have Lokayukta to check corruption but it is nothing more than a toothless tiger as Lokayukta has neither been authorised to register a case suo moto nor have government servants been allowed to lodge complaints. Advocating amendments in the Assam Lokayukta and
Upalokayukta Act 1985, the Upalokayukta of Assam Justice D. Biswas (Retd) told this newspaper that there are states where the Lokayukta has been given power to register the cases suo moto, which gives strength to the institution. “The Assam Lokayukta does not have these powers. The Assam Lokayukta and Upalokayuktas Act, 1985, needs to be amended,” he felt. Admitting that institution has not been able to deliver to its expectations, Justice Biswas said, “There was communication gap as for many years the post of Upa-Lokyukta remained vacant.”
Justice Biswas, who requested the state government to set up office of the Lokayukta at every subdivision and district level to enable the people to lodge complaints, said, “May be the general people are not aware of the Lokayukta and the purpose it serves or perhaps there is some communication gap. Whatever be the reason, we have not seen many people coming forward and approaching the Lokayukta in Assam. No big case of corruption has been lodged as yet.” He said if cases are registered against ministers and senior officials, the Lokayukta has been authorised to acquire the services of any investigation agency, including the CBI, for investigation.
He said, “We have been trying to communicate the people that they just have to approach us. All they have to do is to lodge a complaint. If they have no evidence and we think that the complaint is in public interest, we’ll ask for relevant documents from the government department concerned.”
Since 1991, 1,001 cases have been lodged at the Assam Lokayukta — but not against any higher officials, MLA or minister — and only 28 cases are pending.
Justice Biswas, who took over the office in April 2010, said that his office has also taken up a few cases to Assam governor, as the state government could not implement the recommendations.