Two days after the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, 2013 got President Pranab Mukherjee’s assent, the Odisha Cabinet on Friday decided in principle to enact the Lokayukta Act within one month.
Announcing this after a Cabinet meeting here, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said the Chief Minister and the Council of Ministers would also come under the purview of the proposed State Act.
“In view of our government’s commitment to fight corruption and bring in transparency in public life, the State government will get this legislation enacted within a period of one month, even though the Central Act provides for a window of one year for implementation,” Mr. Patnaik said.
“I am sure this legislation will go a long way in this regard and we will leave no stone unturned in our resolve for complete transparency in governance, in bringing down corruption and ensuring that the public services reach the farthest person in the remotest corner of our State,” Mr. Patnaik said in a statement that he read out before presspersons at the Secretariat.
Mr. Patnaik said his government had always taken tough, effective and exemplary steps in tackling corruption, improving transparency and delivery of public services.
Shah panel report
Incidentally, the Cabinet decided to enact the Lokayukta Act a day after the Union Cabinet referred the M.B. Shah Commission’s report on illegal mining in Odisha to a Committee of Secretaries to finalise an action taken report.
The Commission’s report has indicted both the Central and State governments for illegal mining worth thousands of crores in Odisha.
In another development, the Opposition Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party held separate press conferences in the afternoon and demanded immediate resignation of Mr. Patnaik for his alleged involvement in the mining scam in the wake of the submission of the Shah Commission report.
The Congress announced a State-wide bandh on January 7 demanding the Chief Minister’s resignation.
