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| Team Anna members meet the Uttarakhand Chief Minister B.C.Khanduri in Dehradun on Monday. |
The anti-corruption law known as the “Uttarakhand Lokayukta Bill” was passed in the state assembly Monday and includes in its purview the chief minister and other ministers, legislators, and all government officials. It also covers the lower judiciary in the state but exempts high court judges.
The small hill state that was once a part of Uttar Pradesh is governed by India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. Passage of the law may give the BJP some advantage against the ruling Congress party in New Delhi when Parliament convenes for the winter session later this month by allowing the BJP to claim it has been actively implementing Mr. Hazare’s proposals and is serious about introducing anti-corruption measures.
Mr. Hazare rocked India with a hunger strike in August designed to pressure the government into adopting his version of anti-graft legislation. The government has said it will take up the issue in the upcoming Parliamentary session.
Uttarakhand already had a Lokayukta but it carried little power. Prakash Pant, the state’s parliamentary minister, said in an interview that the changes will “tighten the weak ombudsman institution” in the state and “go a long way in the fight against corruption.”
With the passage of the new law, the Lokayukta would no more be a single-person institution but a panel with a chairman and five to seven other members — half of whom will have a legal background, he said.
A separate committee – comprising the chief minister, the leader of the opposition, and the chief justice of the Uttarakhan High Court –that now selects the state’s Lokayukta or People’s Commissioner will be expanded to include eminent citizens and will be responsible for choosing the new Lokayukta chairman and panel members.
The Lokayukta would also have the power to recommend punishment, removal or demotion of government officials after the completion of an investigation of no longer than 12 months.
The law envisages that “for any act of corruption, the punishment shall not be less than six months of rigorous imprisonment and may extend up to ten years. In the rarest of rare cases, the punishment may be extended up to life imprisonment.”
On Wednesday, Arvind Kejriwal, Mr. Hazare’s close aide, congratulated the Uttarakhand government at a press conference in New Delhi for introducing a “comprehensive law” and said the Congress party-led government at the center should use it as a “reference point.”
The law passed by the Uttarakhand assembly requires the federal government’s approval before it becomes effective in the state.Mr. Kejriwal said they were waiting to see if the center would “supersede” the bill by enacting a “weak law” at the national level.
The move was also welcomed by India’s law minister, Salman Khurshid.“It is good Uttarakhand has passed the Lokayukta bill. Every state should pass its own bill and the center should pass the Lokpal bill,” he said at a television press conference in New Delhi Wednesday.
The new Lokayukta bill, however, has been slammed by anti-corruption advocate Avdhash Kaushal, who heads a non-governmental organization called the Rural Litigation & Entitlement Kendra in the state’s capital of Dehra Dun.
He explained the law lays down special provisions for top bureaucrats, the chief minister and legislators. For instance, all Lokayukta members must give their consent for investigations into them but not to other government officers.“Such measures are discriminatory and unconstitutional,” he said.
Sanjay Kumar, fellow at the New Delhi-based Center for the Study of Developing Societies, said the BJP is “hoping to reap electoral dividends” by coming up with legislation mirroring Mr. Hazare’s version of the anti-graft watchdog ahead of state assembly elections early next year.
“It could have a ripple-effect on the edgy political spectrum, with pressure on others to follow suit,” Mr. Kumar said.
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