SHILLONG, FEB 20: The Meghalaya Lokayukta (Amendment) Bill, 2024 introduced by the opposition VPP MLA from North Shillong Adelbert Nongrum in the Assembly on Tuesday was rejected through voice vote.
Introducing the Bill during the session, Nongrum said that the amendment to the Lokayukta Act, 2021 has diluted the effective functioning of Lokayukta in the state, by making radical changes to the strength of Lokayukta members and composition of judicial benches that it no longer bears resemblance to what was originally in the principal enactment.
“By allowing option of a single member body of just the chairperson alone, and without the mandatory appointment of judicial member(s) in what is a statutorily a judicial body, and to hear and decide cases of corruption by a single member bench, the Amendment Act of 2021 has practically weakened the role of the Lokayukta in the state,” he said.
He alleged that the present Meghalaya Lokayukta Act has been robbed of the essential provisions which flowed from the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act of Parliament, and mirrored not just the objective but the provisions as well.
Nongrum said that the Private Members’ Bill seek to protect and strengthen the institution of Lokayukta in the state, so as to effectively deal with rising cases of corruption by public functionaries, to re-enact the essential provisions of the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, that were deleted and substituted by the Amendment Act of 2021 and to amend the existing Meghalaya Lokayukta Act for giving it more teeth and more effectiveness that it deserves.