BANGALORE: Children at Ecumenical Christian Centre on Friday and students of Bangalore Institute of Legal Studies on Tuesday heard Lokayukta N. Santosh Hegde drive his message home that the institution of Lokayukta was not meant only to tackle corrupt practices in government offices, the popular perception among people.

"It looks into maladministration and misconduct, which includes cases of corruption. Basically our institution is a grievance redressal body... similar to an ombudsman. We see that steps are taken to provide good governance to people," Mr. Hegde said at the inauguration of student activities at the institute.

Questions from the students prompted Mr. Hegde to come out with these thoughts at the two places. About how he wished to tackle corruption, Mr. Hegde said, "According to the Lokayukta Act, the Lokayukta has no powers to conduct raids. The Lokayukta or Upa Lokayukta can only visit offices and initiate search operations and then send reports to the Government recommending disciplinary action."

The raids, Mr. Hegde said, were normally carried out by the police. In the case of the Lokayukta it was done by the police wing of the Lokayukta, which was empowered to do so under the Prevention of Corruption Act. "We (Lokayukta and Upa Lokayukta) cannot be a part of the raid. We can only forward cases of corruption to the police wing and ask them to take action," he said.

He asked people to go to the Lokayutka with their grievances, which, he said, would be effectively redressed. He asked non-government organisations and other organisations to collect the grievance petitions and bring them to the Lokayukta. He said the joint visits of him and Upa Lokayukta G. Patri Basavana Goud to Mandya, Mysore and Hassan had been effective in redressing grievances.

Mr. Hegde said he was in favour of preventive measures instead of punitive measures while tackling corruption.

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