The post of Lokayukta was lying vacant since October 17, 2013, when the then Lokayukta, Justice (retd) B Sudarshan Reddy, had resigned citing personal reasons. The appointment of Justice Misra had not enthused people who at first believed that the government was merely going through the motions to later claim that they had fulfilled yet another pre-poll promise ahead of the 2017 Assembly elections. But, little did the government realise at that time what was in store for it.
No sooner he took charge, Justice Misra took matters in hand and asked the Director of Tourism to stop all further payments to the beach cleaning contractors. This decision hit the government the most. The beach cleaning scam had been widely reported after the initial expose by Herald and the matter was raised and discussed in the Assembly with Independent MLA Rohan Khaunte determinedly taking up the issue. However, the government had neither accepted the demand for an inquiry nor had it scrapped the contract. Ram Engineering and Construction Company and Bhumika Clean Tech Pvt Ltd, contractors for cleaning Goa’s beaches continued to do the shoddy work with payments to them being cleared regularly.
The Lokayukta’s direction came after he heard complaints by Khaunte, activist-lawyer Aires Rodrigues and Suraj Borkar, alleging that the beach cleaning exercise was a multi-crore scam. The Lokayukta also directed the Director of Goa Tourism to submit his comments on the alleged beach cleaning scam and to produce the entire file. He also directed the Vigilance Director to submit a detailed report on its investigations into the complaint.
Not stopping there, the Lokayukta hit another blow to the government ordering a stay on electricity contracts worth Rs 328 crore following a complaint from the Congress that alleged irregularities in the tendering process. Justice Misra issued notices to the Chief Secretary, Finance Secretary, Power Secretary and Chief Electrical Engineer in the corruption case filed against them by Congress. The complaint had alleged that two tenders worth Rs 328 crore were ‘awarded fraudulently, manipulating, rigging and throwing laws, rules and procedures to the wind to siphon and pocket money from public exchequer in the name of development’.
The works include the Rs 186.63 crore tender for electrical works in sub-transmissions and HT and LT distribution network awarded to Larsen and Toubro, and purchase of 20,000 electric poles at an estimated cost of Rs 145.51 crores from KEI Industries Limited. The work includes conversion of existing 11 KV overhead bare conductor lines to 11 KV aerial bunched cable network. Herald had exposed the Rs 145.51 crore scam in August. In the case of the first tender, the works were estimated at the cost of Rs 156.51 crore, however, the tender was issued to Larsen and Toubro who had quoted Rs 186.63 crore, almost Rs 30 crore more than the actual bid. In the case of the Rs 145.51 crore scam, GED violated a HC order dictating that purchases of such nature have to be made from Handicrafts Corporation, thus leading to losses to the exchequer. The government made a bid to vacate the stay on power tenders but Lokayukta didn’t budge.
The above instances prove that Justice Misra is no mug with the bat and he means business right from day one. The BJP government, on the other hand, although hit by the rulings has put up a brave face stating they have fulfilled the promise of corruption-free governance with the appointment of Lokayukta. However, such rulings just ahead of the elections are a major blow for any party and the ministers concerned in particular.
