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Govt. rejects Lokayukta's proposal

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI MARCH 21. The Delhi Government has rejected the proposal of the Lokayukta to bring civil servants within its purview. Also, it has turned down the Lokayukta's suggestion that its recommendation be implemented within three month.

Furthermore, the Government has refused to accept the suggestion that public functionaries declare their annual property returns to the Assembly Speaker. The Government made its views known in its action taken report on the Lokayukta annual report for the period December 1, 1999, to December 31, 2000. The action taken report was tabled in the Delhi Assembly today.

Arguing that it has been receiving a number of complaints of corruption and poor and inefficient quality of public services by the civil servants, the Lokayukta in its report had said that it could not deal with those complaints because of the "handicap of want of jurisdiction over civic servants''. As a result, it was unable to fulfill its mission of eradicating corruption and favouritism in public services and proposed that its jurisdiction be extended to bureaucrats.

The Lokayukta had also recommended that it be empowered to remove public servants from their offices without any further inquiry.

With the Capital not being a full-fledged State, the Delhi Government cited practical difficulties in implementing the recommendations of the Lokayukta. Asserting that the Capital continues to be a Union Territory in the first schedule of the Constitution, it said the civic servants working under it were already falling within the ambit of surveillance of numerous agencies of the Delhi Government and also of the Central Government including CVC, CBI, PAC and GAG. "In case of CVC, the jurisdiction does not extend to civil servants working in State Governments, though it extends to those working under us,'' it argued.

As for the Lokayukta's recommendation that its decisions be carried out by the competent authority within a period of three months, the Delhi Government said: "The recommendation will be implemented expeditiously. However, setting a rigid time limit is not possible as many recommendations involve investigation and policy changes, both of which are time consuming.''

Not accepting the suggestion of the Lokayukta's that public functionaries be asked to declare their annual property returns to the Delhi Assembly Speaker, the Delhi Government said: "The matter is being examined in consultation with the Union Government. No guidelines for the elected representatives appear to have been prepared by the Central Government so far.''

On Lokayukta's suggestion to appoint an Uplokayukta, the Government said that the present workload of eight to 10 complaints did not justify the appoint of a deputy. "The post of Uplokayukta cold be created if the increase in workload is justified.'' it said.

In its report, the Lokayukta had said that it had received 62 complaints during the period of which 54 were found outside its jurisdiction. "Nine complaints were investigated along with one from the previous year,'' it said. Besides suo moto action was taken on two matters including one into irregularities and illegalities in granting permits for autorickshaws by the Transport Department.

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