Meghalaya Lokayukta Act
SHILLONG: At a time when the people of Meghalaya are in the dark about the assets and properties of officers and other Government staff, the upcoming Meghalaya Lokayukta Act makes it mandatory for them to make their wealth public.
At present, the people of the state come to know about the assets of the legislators and ministers when they file the affidavits during elections. As per the Meghalaya Lokayukta Bill passed by the Assembly recently, every public servant will have to declare his or her assets and liabilities.
As per the proposed Act, “Every public servant shall file to the competent authority on or before July 31 every year the annual return of assets and liabilities”. But the competent authority can condone or exempt a public servant from furnishing the information “in respect of assets not exceeding such minimum value as may be prescribed”.
As far as Chief Minister, ministers and legislators are concerned, they would have to declare their assets and also of their wives and dependent children within 30 days of taking oath or affirmation to enter the office.
Moreover, a public servant holding his office at the time of the commencement of the Lokayukta Act should furnish information relating to assets and liabilities to the competent authority within 30 days of the coming into force of the Act.
The competent authority in each department will ensure that the statements related to the assets and liabilities are published in the website of every department by August 31 every year. As per the Act, if any public servant fails to declare assets or gives wrong information, “then such assets , unless otherwise proved, be presumed to belong to the public servant and shall be presumed to be assets acquired by corrupt means”.