Action Sought Only on 1% Cases Received by Lokayukta: RTI

Outlook: Mumbai: Tuesday, 16 December 2014.

Maharashtra's Lokayukta and Deputy Lokayukta received over two lakh pending and new cases in the last 15 years, out of which 65.32 per cent were disposed of while only one per cent was recommended for action, an RTI query has revealed.

Out of the 2,034 recommended cases to the government, a special report had to be submitted to the Governor in 600 cases due to the government's inaction on them, as per the information received by RTI activist Anil Galgali.

Also, in the past 15 years, nearly 127 complaints were received against the ministers, out of which Lokayukta had found substance in four cases.

Galgali had filed the RTI with the Lokayukta and Deputy Lokayukta office seeking information about total cases received by it in the past 15 years and the action taken on the complaints.

Public Information Officer and Assistant Registrar V K Borade, in reply to the query, informed the activist that from 2000 to October 2014, Lokayukta got 2,06,269 complaints, which included the initially pending cases received prior to 2000 and the new cases received during the period.

Out of these, 1,34,749 cases were disposed of by the anti-corruption ombudsman organisations and 2,034 cases were referred to the government for action.

Of the 2,034 cases, 600 cases were not acted upon by the government for which special report was sent to the Governor by the Lokayukta, Galgali said.

The maximum complaints received by the anti-corruption bodies pertained to the Revenue and Forests departments, as per the RTI query.

Notably, since the enactment of the Lokayukta and Deputy Lokayukta Act 1971 in Maharashtra, both the posts are lying vacant in the state for the first time, Galgali said.

In the past, whenever the term of the Lokayukta used to end at least the Deputy Lokayukta used to be in office, he said.