TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, has reiterated his desire to accede to civil society pressure on amendments to the Lokayukta Act and said that he was prepared to talk on both, the amount of fine and the deemed accepted/rejected clause (16A). He defended himself saying that he had made both changes to make a stronger bill for the good of all.
“I am prepared to reduce (the amount) if those who oppose it are open to the principle that deterrent is needed and if that is acceptable, the amount can be decided on,” he said.
“If the Lokayukta is flooded with 5000 complaints, he will not be able to function… But I cannot permit paralysis of government,” he said giving the example of the information commissioner, saying that now nobody (qualified) wants to touch the post as the previous incumbents had been targeted. “Nobody is coming forward,” he said.
“On 16A ~ if you don’t want it, I will remove it,” the chief minister said. He said that he could agree on the criticism about CMs and ministers. “We are politicians. We can defend ourselves,” he asserted, but argued, “But I don’t agree the same is the case with the bureaucracy. They have to be protected from vexatious and fraudulent complaints. If not, governance will be paralysed,” he said.
Talking about the meeting with IAC Tuesday, he denied that he had said he would do it. He said “you come back by March 15; after that we can see,” he said adding that the IAC had agreed that bogus complaints should definitely be punished.
“(With lowering the) Amount I have no problem. I think both agreed that deterrent should be there,” he said.
Parrikar said that he had “no problem because of ego,” and any bill/Act ~ Uttarakhand or any other one was fine with him.
“The Lokayukta will virtually look into at least 80,000 people or around 12 per cent of the population. It has a very wide compass. Anybody who has been paid more than Rs 1 lakh by the government comes under the purview of the Lokayukta,” he said.
