Tahaliyani seeks amendment of Act to make Lokayukta stronger

Among amendments he is likely to propose are steps to make suggestions of the Lokayukta and the Upa-Lokayukta binding on the competent authority.

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“Circumstances have changed as 40 years have passed from the time the law was enacted. An amendment, therefore, is required,” explains Tahaliyani, who, before assuming office as the state’s 10th Lokayukta, served a judge in the Bombay High Court.
The Lokayukta is “optimistic”, given the government is keen to help him.

Chief Minister Fadnavis, when he was an Opposition legislator in the previous Assembly, had brought a private member bill in the legislature for amending the Lokaykta Act. “I am confident he (Fadnavis) will help the Lokayukta,” Tahaliyani had said.
The existing set up does not discourage Tahaliyani. Soon after he assumed office, he found two of his own men guilty of “dereliction of duty” and suspended them, an action not commonly heard of.

“Prima facie, they (an officer and a clerk) were found guilty of dereliction of duty, but a departmental inquiry into misappropriation is being proposed. If guilty, we may get an FIR lodged,” he says. A chargesheet is also being prepared.

The institution has also taken up suo motu cases. Tahaliyani expressed concern over citizens indulging in corruption. Recently, he sought reports in cases including one pertaining to illegalities in construction of the Mazgaon Court building, currently in a very poor condition. “We will check whether or not public servants are guilty of negligence or lack of supervision,” he says.

Secondly, the Mumbai Municipal Commissioner has been asked to give a report on allegations of irregularities in the desilting of drains before 2015 monsoon. Contractors were reported to have forged documents and provided fake bills for desilting works.

Before his appointment, the office of the Maharashtra Lokayukta was vacant for 10 months. Asked whether issues during that period, such as the irrigation scam, could be a matter of investigation for his office, Tahaliyani said there was no need to “unnecessarily interfere” if a competent authority such as the ACB was investigating.

Despite the institution’s efforts to bring down cases, 4,382 cases are pending in the Lokayukta. “Although a chunk
of pending cases has been cleared, there is an increasing number of cases filed on a daily basis,” he says. According to Lokayukta’s estimates, 500 new cases are filed every month, mostly allegations of corruption and grievances. Tahaliyani is also apprehensive of those who may use the Lokayukta as a platform to get own interests served. “We have to be wary of blackmailers,” Tahaliyani said.

Talks with the government’s IT department may result in the Lokayukta getting a website which people can readily access and where they can post grievances. “The best part (about Lokayukta) is there is no intermediary unlike a court where there are lawyers,” he feels.
aamir.khan@expressindia.com