‘RTI often misused for extortion’
SHILLONG: There should be a collective effort to stop corrupt practices in the system and the Meghalaya Social Audit Act will be introduced, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said on Thursday while speaking on corruption in politics and bureaucracy.
Replying to a resolution moved by Nongstoin MLA D. Jyndiang in the Assembly on Thursday, Sangma said besides politicians, other stakeholders should come together to insulate the system from corruption.
“The usual perception is that the political and the bureaucratic classes are corrupted but the political class represents the public,” he said stressing the importance of people’s participation in checking corruption.
He also added that the Right to Information is often misused as a tool for extortion.
Calling for the need to sensitise people on how various legislations can be used to take on instances of corruption and the necessity to hold workshops, Sangma said the Government would try its best to introduce the State audit Act during the Assembly session or the next session.
Earlier while moving the resolution, Jyndiang quoted the words of Dalai Lama during his address at MLCU Convocation in February 2014 that “India is considered a religious country, but a lot of corruption is taking place. There are many corrupt people, and I think, the corrupt people are also highly educated,”
Jyndiang observed that corruption in the State has reached that level that even government jobs and ministerial berths can be bought.
He urged the government to constitute a judicial inquiry for any corruption case in any department and at any level.
Ardent Basaiawmoit (HSPDP) while elaborating on various measures to check corruption recalled that the government had allotted land to officers at Rs 1 per square feet whereas no poor person is getting the same facility.
Government chief whip Winnerson D. Sangma, said that declaration of income by the public servants is one way of checking corruption.
Referring to the power of Lokayukta, the chief minister said, “Lokayuktas in other states do not even have a tooth, forget about teeth. But Meghalaya’s Lokayukta has enough mechanism to check corruption.”
Assets declaration
The chief minister said from July, government employees whose income is more than Rs 2 lakh per annum would have to declare their assets and those with income below Rs 2 lakh would be exempted from the rule. “With this move, many public service employees will have problem,” Sangma said.