Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, July 17: Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, MoS in Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Space & Atomic Energy, today stated in the Lok Sabha, that so far 22 States and one Union Territory – Delhi have enacted respective laws for establishment of Lokayuktas. He further clarified that out of these 22 States, the State of Jammu and Kashmir has enacted an Act establishing State Accountability Commission (SAC).
Dr Jitendra Singh, was responding to a question by Dr P N Seema, CPI (M) Member of Parliament.
Dr Jitendra Singh said that Section 63 of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 envisages that every State shall establish a body to be taken up as Lokayukta for the State within a period of one year from the date of commencement of this Act.
Pertinent to mention here that even though several States have enacted the Act, many of the States are yet to make the Act as effective as the Central Lokpal Act. For example, the Lokpal consists of a Chairperson and maximum of eight members, of which 50% shall be judicial members and 50% shall be from SC, ST, OBC, minorities and women.
The selection of Chairperson and Members of Lokpal is to be through a Selection Committee consisting of Prime Minister, Speaker of Lok Sabha, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Chief Justice of India, or a sitting judge to be nominated by Chief Justice of India and an eminent jurist to be nominated by President of India.
The Selection Committee is further responsible for constituting a Search Committee for the process of selection. Significantly, such selection process is not followed in many States though they do have Lokayuktas. Similarly, in many States, the Lokayukta Act does not confer the power for prosecution or confiscating of property as envisaged in the Lokpal.
The States which are yet to enact the Lokayukta legislation include Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.
Giving details of the mechanism available with Government to monitor areas and posts where corruption is rampant, Dr Jitendra Singh said, there is Performance Management Division (PMD) in place which uses the Performance Monitoring and Evaluation System (PMES) through Result Framework Documents (RFDs) for receiving inputs about the corruption related cases.
As regards identification of posts which are prone to corruption, Dr Jitendra Singh stated that Central Vigilance Commission has issued instructions for rotation of officials working in sensitive posts which offers scope for corruption.
Emphasis is also being laid, he said, on increasing public awareness using e-governance, simplifying tax regimes and encouraging use of Information and Technology (IFT). Further, every department has been asked to identify firms that are in vogue and shorten them possibly to make them one page only.
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