They have spend from their own pockets for meals.
If you are wondering why our Lok Ayukta office is so low-profile that people even don’t know their Lok Ayukta’s name, there are more surprises in store.
DNA investigations reveal that top officials of Lokayukta are being paid only Rs100 a day whenever they travel to other districts of the state.
Lok Ayukta office regularly organises camps in every district to reach out to the common people. With this amount, officials can only stay in government guest houses.
Guest house rent is around Rs100 a day — so the entire amount is spent for accommodation only.
They have spend from their own pockets for meals.
“The paltry sum as daily allowances is so embarrassing that we sometimes feel awkward to claim it,” said a top official, requesting anonymity.
The top officials here are mostly retired judges.
The Lok Ayukta comes under General Administration Department. The person who heads Lok Ayukta, however, gets Rs500 as daily allowance.
No plaint from political parties
Santosh Hegde is a national figure for quite some time now.
Reason: He inquired and proved corruption charges against the government after complaints from the opposition parties of Karnataka.
But Maharashtra is not so lucky. Our elected representatives don’t really want to exercise their rights. Even so called Opposition parties of the state, which usually don’t miss a chance to level allegations in front of the media, never think of using a proper mechanism — Lok Ayukta — to fight against corruption.
Maharashtra was among the first states to implement Lok Ayukta in 1971.
There is literally no complaint in the Lok Ayukta office from any opposition parties across the state in the last three years.
This despite the fact that the office is bang opposite Mantralaya.
“We have recently got a complaint about Kirit Somiaya (from the BJP) to inquire about a land of defence which is allotted to Kalpataru builders,” said Justice PB Jadhav, registrar of Lok Ayukta.
A government official said: “Political parties refrain from filing complaints as allegations will be on record and the case will be pursued, thus compromises will not be possible.”
However, the common people are aware about their rights.
The office gets 50 to 60 complaints every day. Special camps of four days in each district sometimes registers up to 300 cases. This year, more than 8,000 cases have been registered, out of which 4,500 cases are pending.
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