Kerala - Kochi   

Call for investigation wing under Ombudsman

KOCHI: Ombudsman for Local Self-Government Institutions M.R. Hariharan Nair has observed that the government should accord sufficient importance to the need for creating the long-overdue investigation wing under the Ombudsman.

The ombudsman made the observation while closing a petition filed by the Quilon Citizens’ Forum seeking demolition and removal of constructions at Chinnakkada, which have violated the Kerala Building Rules.

The ombudsman said that the statutory functions of the Ombudsman, as envisaged under section 271-J of the Panchayati Raj Act, specifically refer to ‘investigations’ apart from inquiries.

That these two functions were different was clear from sections 271-M and 271-N of the Act. The investigation wing had not materialised even after more than seven years since the formation of the ombudsman.

An Inspector-General of Police was appointed some time back. But he could not do anything in the absence of subordinate officials to assist him. As of now, the position was that there was absolutely no one attached to the ombudsman to make any investigation.

The Ombudsman said that experience hitherto showed that investigations ordered through the district police had not yielded any valid results.

He also ordered that a copy of the order be forwarded to the secretary, local self-government institutions, so that the urgent need to have the investigation wing formed to discharge the statutory duties of ombudsman could be placed before the government for appropriate and urgent action.

The ombudsman said that in the instant case, efforts made by the Ombudsman to get at the relevant records did not bear any fruit.

The Kollam Development Authority which was approached also could not give any relevant information.

The Superintendent of Police, Kollam, was requested to make investigations but ultimately what came out was a report prepared by a DySP accepting the version of the corporation staff that all the relevant files had disappeared and that none could be held responsible.

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