The recently held public rally by the anti-graft movement, Against Corruption And Unabated Taxation (ACAUT), or rather, the resolutions of the rally, included a pledge to pursue the passage of Nagaland Lokayukta Bill 2015 in the state Assembly.
The rally resolved to demand from the state government to summon a special session of Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) to pass the Bill in order to check all various forms of corruption, mismanagement and siphoning of public funds. In the event the state government fails to act on the demands of ACAUT including the above, before the end of September, a clear warning has been sounded that the ‘public’ will call for an all Nagaland bandh/closure.
The said Bill was introduced in the state Assembly on July 23, 2015. However, the five-member select committee of the Nagaland Lokayukta Bill 2015 led by parliamentary secretary Levi Rengma as chairman, has been moving for extension of its tenure to present the committee’s report ever since its first six months tenure elapsed.
It is not just the ACAUT that is demanding the government to enact the anti-corruption ombudsman law in the state. The Nagaland Voluntary Consumers Organization, the Nagaland Government Registered Class-I Contractors’ Union, and even the Governor of the state himself, have been reminding that it was time for the state government to pass the long pending Bill.
As pointed out by the Governor, with the rise in scams and illegal rackets in the state, it has only increased the need to enact the Lokayukta Bill at the earliest.
The constitution of the Lokayukta/Lokpal is not a recent concept. It was mooted in the Parliament by the Administrative Reforms Commission headed by Moraji Desai way back in 1966. Even though the Centre could pass the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act only in 2013, many states in India had already enacted their own Lokayukta Bill before that, starting with Maharashtra in 1971. Now, more than 20 states have already enacted it. Even the state’s neighbours Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram have passed their respective state Bills in 2014.
The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013, commonly known as the Lokpal Act, is an anti-corruption Act of Indian Parliament in India which seeks to provide for the establishment of the institution of Lokpal to inquire into allegations of corruption against certain public functionaries and for matters connecting them.
The compulsory declaration of assets and liabilities by public servants is conspicuously missing in Nagaland at present. It is one of the important sections of the Lokayukta Act. It will be one of the first steps in placing a legal deterrent to control the rampant corruption and accumulation of illegal proceeds from public fund. When it comes to utilisation of money meant for public there should not be any special cases for any state including Nagaland. Complete accountability of public servants without any dilution of the Act has to be maintained.
The uneven and disproportionate accumulation of wealth is mostly attributable to corruption existing in the state and one major factor that is rapidly creating a clear divide in the socio-economic classes with a big noticeable gap between the haves and the have-nots. It proliferates a condition where the crafty benefit instead of the hardworking and sincere public servants. It again leads to frustration and de-motivation among the once sincere lot who slowly become susceptible to and takes the bait of corruption.
The Naga ethos on equality is slowly being disturbed and the counter product is rearing its ugly head on the other hand where everyone wants to be with the “in-crowd”. A discontented population is one of the hardest to govern anywhere in the world. The present government should hasten to enact the state’s Lokayukta Bill at the earliest before it faces the electorates in 2018.
