The Meghalaya Lokayukta was appointed in November 2018, rather late in the day and only after activists put constant pressure on the Government. It took a while for the Lokayukta go begin functioning since the required manpower and logistics took time in coming. Nevertheless, the appointment itself brought a ray of hope to citizens that unbridled corruption in different branches of the Government would now be reduced. As per the Meghalaya Lokayukta Act, “The Lokayukta shall, on receipt of a complaint, first decide whether to proceed in the matter or close the same and if the Lokayukta decides to proceed further, it shall order preliminary inquiry against any public servant by its Inquiry Wing or any agency (including any special investigation agency) to ascertain whether there exists a prima facie case for proceeding in the matter. (2) During the preliminary inquiry, the Inquiry Wing or any agency shall conduct a preliminary inquiry and on the basis of material, information and documents collected, seek comments on the allegations made in the complaint from the public servant and competent authority and after obtaining the comments of the concerned public servant and competent authority, submit, within sixty days from the date of receipt of the reference, a report to the Lokayukta.
Considering that illegal coal mining and transportation has become the high point of the MDA Government’s acts of commission, it was expected that some whistle blower would call out the venality sooner than later. However, as is well known here the culture of silence pervades and complaints before the Lokayukta were few and far between. The tribal culture of clan and kinship ties prevents whistle blowing. Many public servants and those having dealings with the Government know of the modus operandi of corruption in different departments but they will not call that out. Instead, people will start a whispering campaign which helps no one. In the illegal coal trade for instance, everyone who is close to the corridors of power knows the modus operandi of this trade (a) who is controlling the trade (b) what the daily incomes of those involved in this trade which includes politicians, bureaucrats and the police are.
It was only recently that some persons were bold enough to make a written complaint to the Lokayukta and point out the grave acts of depravity in the coal trade. The Lokayukta took cognizance of the complaint and directed the CBI to investigate the case. The Lokayukta further directed the Government to transfer the officers named so that a free and fair investigation could go on. Naturally this did not go down too well with the bureaucracy and now the case is being challenged. At every step, efforts to check corruption in this country are being thwarted. Should citizens remain mute spectators?