Mokokchung, September 25 (MTNews): The Nagaland Voluntary Consumer Organization (NVCO) has appealed the public to come forward and voice for a “strong Lokayukta” in Nagaland so as to let the state government select the right person particularly that of Upa-Lokayukta.
According to an NVCO press note, only after much pressure from civil society organizations including ACAUT Nagaland, PSAN, NVCO, PCC, etc. and the Supreme Court’s direction, Lokaykuta was established by appointing a retired chief justice of Meghalaya High Court, Justice Uma Nath Singh and Mayang Lima who was one of the defeated candidates with NDPP ticket, as Upa-Lokayukta.
The press note, however, stated that the Lokayukta was unable to function for much longer because the State Government had approached the Supreme Court of India with a writ petition specifically seeking “removal of the Nagaland Lokayukta” and a request that the Court direct the Lokayukta to assign all pending matters before him to the Upa-Lokayukta. The claimed writ petitions “may be the first of its sort in the country,” according to NVCO.
Justice Uma Nath Singh was allegedly compelled to submit his resignation, which was accepted on February 5, 2021, according to NVCO. As per the NVCO, Justice Singh informed the court that his decision to resign was motivated by “unpleasant environment circumstances” and “hostile environment.”
“The state government must be happy for the resignation of the Nagaland Lokayukta Mr. Justice Uma Nath Singh,” NVCO said, adding that the government must be now “more comfortable” because the current Upa-Lokayukta, who “had a political party affiliation particularly NDPP,” will act and discharge the powers of the Lokayukta until a new Lokayukta is appointed.
The relevant section 3 (8) of the Nagaland Lokayukta Act, 2017, as emphasized by NVCO President Kezhokhoto Savi, specifies that the Upa-Lokayukta shall have all the rights and immunities of the Lokayukta when acting as or performing the functions of the Lokayukta. He also emphasized section 3(9), which states that a vacancy in the office of the Lokayukta or Upa-Lokayukta caused by death, resignation, retirement, or removal must be filled as quickly as practicable, but no later than six months from the date of occurrence.
How State Government tried to alter Nagaland Lokayukta Act
The NVCO president stated that following the departure of the former Nagaland Lokayukta, the state government formed a Search Committee comprised of the Chief Secretary and the Nagaland Advocate General. Instead of selecting a Nagaland Lokayukta within six months, the state government moved to amend the Nagaland Lokayukta Act, 2017. He said that this was done to keep the position vacant for a longer period of time, i.e. one year rather than six months.
He disclosed that the state administration attempted to change the wording of Section 3(9), changing it from six months to one year. However, the governor stated that changing the time by one year would not be “in the interest of transparent governance.” It was also stated that the state governor had written three reminders to the government to fill the position, which he feels the government should have done.
According to the press note, the governing Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party-Bharatiya Janata Party regime altered the Nagaland Lokayukta Act, 2017 to enable itself a year to keep the job of the anti-corruption ombudsman empty.
On August 3, 2021, the first day of the state assembly’s Monsoon Session, state Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio introduced the Nagaland Lokayukta (Amendment No.2) Bill, 2021. Surprisingly, the 60-member house passed the Bill rendering the state’s anti-corruption watchdog “headless” for a year during the three-day session on August 5, 2021.
However, it was reported that the then Governor of Nagaland, RN Ravi, rejected the Lokayukta (Amendment No.2) Bill and returned it to the Speaker of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly for reconsideration.
Upa-Lokayukta violating Nagaland Lokayukta Act
The Nagaland Voluntary Consumers’ Organization (NVCO) earlier had asked the two-member search committee to hurriedly identify candidates for appointment of next Nagaland Lokayukta as the stipulated time period of six months already expired on 5th August 2021 and also since the (Amendment No.2) Bill was rejected by the former governor RN Ravi. However, it was revealed that even after the expiry of one year, the present Upa-Lokayukta is still holding and discharging the powers of Nagaland Lokayukta.
“In case the words ‘one year’ is substituted to Section 3 sub-section (9), still then, the one year got expired on 5th February, 2022. Even after the expiry of one year, the present Upa-Lokayukta is still holding and discharging the powers of Nagaland Lokayukta in total violation of Nagaland Lokayukta Act,” NVCO stated.
The organization emphasized the importance of reviving the institution as the rates and degree of corruption in Nagaland are extremely high, whether in the government’s employment sector or in its financial operations.
“The CAG of India after an audit had expressed grave concern over recurrent cases of excess and fraudulent withdrawal in the finance department. It was disheartening to learn that Nagaland was among the worst performing states and UTs as per the assessment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) India Index & Dashboard 2020-21 where it is tabulated annually by NITI Aayog in order to evaluate the progress of States and Union territories of the basis of social, economic and environment criteria,” it stated.
NVCO cautions government, politicians
Stating that Lokayukta is a great check on corruption, particularly among public servants such as the chief minister, deputy chief minister, ministers, advisors, legislators, the Vice-Chancellor of Universities, commissioners, secretaries, and directors who clearly confine to the higher-ups of government departments, the Nagaland Voluntary Consumers’ Organization (NVCO) warned the state government not to make the same mistake when selecting a person for Nagaland Lokayukta.
“It would amount to playing with the highest institution in the state which is in dire need to check the corrupt public servants and punish them. This is the only way to build the society by eradicating corruption in the functions of public offices,” it said.
The NVCO further warned the politicians not to lobby for their own candidate if at all they support the institution to truly function as per the Act.
On Appointment of Upa Lokayukta
“Especially for the post of Upa-Lokayukta, the Naga people don’t want a person who retires as government servant/bureaucrats/technocrats, etc. with accumulations of wealth as Lokayukta is to punish the corrupt public servants and also amassing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income which may be similar to the case of one of the former Tamil Nadu Chief Ministers,” the organization stated.
The NVCO demanded that the Upa- Lokayukta post be given to someone who does not hold a record of corrupt practices and pending cases against them. The NVCO urged that anyone having a political party affiliation be rejected and also suggested for it to be someone who is a Naga by blood who can genuinely love the Naga society and be courageous enough to check the corrupt public servants such as politicians or bureaucrats or technocrats.
Corruption in Nagaland
In Nagaland, the NVCO said, the corrupt practices include abuse of power, nepotism, bribery, extortion, embezzlement, fraud, and other “peculiar corrupt practices.” According to NVCO, the “peculiar corrupt practices” includes such as: Party Fund and higher office; deduction of certain percentage in the form of commission from developmental project fund; appointing several non-government employees to the rank of commissioners, secretaries/joint secretaries/PRO/Media officer/assistant; appointing several non-legislators to hold cabinet rank as advisors and also bringing back the retired employees to departments as ‘Consultant’ including Law & Justice department who does not have any legal background/studies which seriously affects the state exchequer, backdoor appointment, misuse of public funds and properties, drawing salaries without attending offices, fund-raise by way of asking donation, selling packed food/meat/buffet ticket etc. at an exorbitant rate, drawing the full amount of project fund without completing the work and many more.
On CAG Reports
The NVCO also cited the CAG report tabled before the NLA which said that hundreds crore of rupees have been misappropriated by several departments but no action is being taken in the court of PAC which consisted of legislators. The NVCO also showed concern over the report tabled by CAG during the recent 13th Nagaland Legislative Assembly session for the year ended March 31, 2018 who highlighted that the state government has “incorrectly used the funds that belong to its employees” under the National Pension Scheme (NPS).
The Chief Minister of Nagaland who holds the finance portfolio presented Rs. 365.33 crore deficit where again, the CAG Report detected anomalies in various government departments. The CAG also detected Rs.215.89 crore losses misappropriated by 18 government departments and had also urged the state government to lodge First Information Report (FIR) in all the cases of misappropriation, loss to the government so as to ensure that timely action was taken in all such cases.
According to the latest CAG report, Nagaland has also failed to submit Rs.600 crores UCs for 251 projects and the CAG had said that the high pendency of UCs (utilization certificate) is “fraught with the risk of misappropriation of funds” while stating that it would also lose out on central funds.
According to the CAG report, NVCO said, the major defaulting departments were Rural Development amounting to Rs.184.35 crore, Planning and Coordination with Rs. 166.54 crore, and education with Rs. 73.65 crore.
In this regard, the NVCO has appealed to the public to remain a watchdog on the state government’s action and asked how long the PAC would remain ineffective or fruitless towards corrupt practices.
Public should voice for strong Lokayukta
The NVCO also highlighted how the government did not take any initiatives to establish Lokayukta as per the provision of Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, 2013 and that, it was only after several awareness campaign in churches, schools, colleges and training institutes by the NVCO and Kohima Law College that some positive impact for the urgent need of ‘Lokayukta’ in the state was understood.
The president asked the state government to be solely responsible and immediately appoint Nagaland Lokayukta considering the rate of corruption in the state and also to dispose of the pending cases in the fairest manner.
In conclusion, he also appealed to the public to come forward to voice for a strong Lokayukta in Nagaland so as to let the state government select the right person, especially Upa-Lokayukta.
“If at all a politician/minister continually lobbies for their candidate of any retired government servants/bureaucrats/technocrats, etc. then the state government may constitute an investigating agency to assess their asset of properties so that they are free from disproportionate assets,” it concluded.