Nitish for more teeth to Lokayukta

Till a few days back, when Justice (Retd) Chandra Mohan Prasad was sworn in as the state’s new Lokayukta, hardly anyone knew that the institution of Lokayukta existed in Bihar for the last 38 years.

The outgoing Lokayukta R N Prasad had time and again claimed that the Bihar Lokayukta had neither the power nor the resources required to act independently and make the kind of impact that the Ombudsman in Karnataka had done.

Notably, two former chief ministers of Bihar  – Lalu Prasad and Dr Jagannath Mishra – were sent to jail on corruption charges (fodder scam) but the Lokayukta played no role in their incarceration. After R N Prasad suggested that Bihar too should have a dedicated police force (much like in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh), so that the Lokayukta becomes stronger, Nitish said he would lend more teeth to it.

“We will bring in suitable amendments in the Bihar Lokayukta Act, 1973 to lend more teeth to the Ombudsman and also ensure the post of the chief minister falls within the ambit of the Lokayukta investigation,” said Nitish.

Already implemented

“We have already implemented Right to Service Act, which is  a potent weapon to fight corruption. In addition, we have made a law  to confiscate property of corrupt public servants,” he said and added that Bihar was arguably the first state where right from the chief minister to Class III employees had made their movable and immovable assets public.