Meghalaya Lukayukta, Justice PK Musahary has warned the civil servants of Meghalaya of dire consequences if they give misleading information on their assets (acquired since they joined service). While this is welcome move, the Lokayukta is likely to run into obstacles because the tribal officers of Meghalaya don’t pay Incomes Tax and most of them claim that the assets belong to their wives. Now whether these officers have married with an eye on their wife’s assets, particularly real estate, is a matter of conjecture but every one of them will point to the wife as the owner of prized assets. In a matrilineal society where landed property is nearly always bought in the name of the wife, this is an easy escape route. Government engineers who entered their profession with virtually no asset worth talking of, have, over a period of thirty or more years been able to amass so much wealth which is ultimately invested in real estate. Their homes are mansions and they are all located in the heart of the city where real estate prices are spiralling. Expecting these officers to declare their assets is a tall order unless the Lokayukta has the power to investigate the source of income of the stay-at-home wife who is said to own the assets.
Questions also need to be raised as to why a tribal IAS officer is exempted from payment of Income Tax while his/her colleagues who are non-tribal pay a huge chunk of their salaries as taxes every year. This surely is inequity at its worst. And this impacts the professional growth of the officer as well, as he/she never goes on a central deputation just to avoid paying Income Tax. Professional growth therefore is stunted and so is the experience of working in more challenging circumstances and bringing in the rich experiences gained elsewhere. The less spoken about technical personnel the better. The quality of roads in Meghalaya and the state of water supply projects are enough evidence of money not being utilised as per the blueprint. And with no independent monitoring agency and a shoddy social audit system in place to call out the poor quality construction works, the citizens are left to deal with third rate infrastructure. One good example is the Bypass from Mawiong to Mawlai which was recently inaugurated. The quality of the road is so rough that vehicle tyres will wear off in no time. It’s a huge difference from the road quality of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in terms of texture.
This and other Government projects is what the Lokayukta should be inspecting and taking up suo-moto.