SHILLONG: The Congress-led MUA Government will fine-tune the Meghalaya Lokayukta Amendment Act, 2013, to bring it in line with the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, 2013.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Dr. Mukul Sangma said the Government was open for amendments to the existing Act.
He said even before the Lokpal Bill was passed recently, the State Government, in 2013, had passed the Meghalaya Lokayukta Act bringing even the Chief Minister under its purview.
During the recent meeting of the Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled states with AICC vice president Rahul Gandhi, it was agreed that the respective states will have Lokayuktas in line with the Lokpal Bill passed by the Parliament.
Though the Meghalaya Lokayukta Amendment Act, 2013 was notified in November, critics of the Act have pointed out that there are too many exemptions from the purview of the Act.
Grade IV employees, employees below grade IV, Chief Justice, any Judge of the High Court, officers and staff of the High Court, members of Meghalaya Judicial service and Chairman or any member of Meghalaya Public Service Commission are exempted from the purview of the Lokayukta Act.
Moreover, the policy formulation of the State Government and also the action taken in pursuance of policies so framed by the Government is also exempted from Lokayukta Act.
The Chief Minister recalled that since the Meghalaya Lokayukta Act, 2002 was weak the Government introduced the Lokayukta Bill in 2013 to suit the current situation.
He said amendment was made to the Lokayukta Bill as per the observation of the Governor.
Moreover, as per the assurance of the Government, the Bill was brought again in the House for discussion last year, but, none of the Opposition members brought any amendments resulting in the Government passing the Bill.
The Chief Minister, however, assured that the Government will make further changes to the Lokayukta Act through legislative means.
Social Auditing Bill proposed
The Government will introduce a Social Auditing Bill in the next Assembly session to ensure proper implementation of projects and programmes in the State.
Chief Minister Dr. Mukul Sangma told reporters on Tuesday that the aim of the Bill is to have concurrent effects while dealing with the implementation of several schemes.
“Through the proposed Bill, we are not only looking at the postmortem of the projects, but simultaneous (concurrent) correction of anomalies if any, while implementing the projects,” he said.
According to the Chief Minister, the proposed Bill will check irregularities in the implementation of schemes which will improve the delivery system.
Dr. Sangma said the Bill will be designed in such a manner that scrutiny and vigilance will be on a concurrent basis when the projects will be implemented by the departments.
