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Congress, BJP spar over Lokayukta appointment

AHMEDABAD: The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Gujarat have blamed each other for the non-appointment of a Lokayukta.

While State Congress president Arjun Modhvadia “invited” social activist Anna Hazare to launch a Delhi-type agitation in Gujarat and called upon people to launch an upsurge demanding the appointment of a Lokayukta, Cabinet spokesman and Health Minister Jaynarayan Vyas said “non-co-operation” by the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly was responsible for keeping the office of the Lokayukta vacant for the last six year or so.

At a media conference in Vadodara, Mr. Modhvadia referred to Mr. Hazare's promise to visit different States to carry his agitation forward against corruption, saying he had “invited” the activist to begin his State rounds from Gujarat to launch an agitation against the BJP government.

Mr. Modhvadia detailed more than a dozen cases of alleged corrupt practices by the Narendra Modi government, including misappropriation of funds in the “Sujalam Sufalam” and other irrigation projects, giving away valuable government land at throw-away prices to major industrial houses causing thousands of crores of rupees loss to the State exchequer and some “unhealthy agreements in the name of fuel adjustment charges” in favour of private power generators.

The State government was deliberately delaying the appointment of a Lokayukta for the last seven years to avoid being “caught on corruption charges.”

Charged with

spreading lies

Mr. Vyas on the other hand, accused the Congress of “deliberately spreading lies.” He said the government made several attempts to recommend a name unanimously to the Governor for the appointment, but every time the Leader of the Opposition, whose approval was necessary under the Gujarat Lokayukta Act, 1986, was playing truant.

Mr. Vyas pointed out that way back in August, 2006, the government invited the Leader of the Opposition, who happened to be Mr. Modhvadia himself, for consultation as required under the Act.

Raised objections

The Congress leader, however, raised objections to the name suggested by the government for the post and wanted some other names also considered.

Surprisingly, the same person was later appointed in the Maharashtra Human Rights Commission by the Congress government in that State, which proved that there was nothing wrong with the name suggested by the government.

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