Mahua Moitra Calls Out Vacancies in Lokpal, 'Headless' For Over a Year
New Delhi: Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra, while calling out the Lokpal on its functioning, said that the anti-corruption ombudsman has not had a chairman for over a year and nearly half the member seats are vacant.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Moitra called the anti-corruption body “headless” and said, “Amused to see how headless LokPal with no full time Chairman “referred” my case to CBI. RTI of 3/11/23 says LokPal has no Chairman since May 2022 & 3 of 8 member posts also vacant!”
Amused to see how headless LokPal with no full time Chairman “referred” my case to CBI.
RTI of 3/11/23 says LokPal has no Chairman since May 2022 & 3 of 8 member posts also vacant!Maybe Jharkhand Branch of Pitbull Association also moonlighting as Lokpal Committee under BJP. pic.twitter.com/XCFWoDgSqf
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) November 25, 2023
Moitra’s post has come in response to the Lokpal referring her case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for investigation of the cash-for-query allegations against the TMC MP.
According to the Right to Information (RTI) response dated November 3, the anti-corruption ombudsman has not had a chairman after Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose left the post in May last year.
Ghose was the first and only chairperson the Lokpal has had since the body was constituted in 2014. Justice Pradip Kumar Mohanty, a judicial member of Lokpal, is currently the acting chairperson.
Also read: The Treatment of Mahua Moitra Is a Case Study on Gender, Power and Politics in India
The RTI also showed that three out of eight member posts are vacant. In March this year, the Lokpal was criticised by a parliamentary committee for its non-performance and failure to fill the post of chairperson and other members, the New Indian Express reported.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey had approached the Lokpal on October 21 alleging that Moitra had compromised national security by sharing her parliament login credentials with unauthorised persons.
“...Hope Rs 13,000 crore Adani coal scam merits CBI PE before my witchhunt,” Mahua was quoted by the Telegraph as saying.
Lokpal’s efficacy in question
The parliamentary panel on the Department of Personnel and Training headed by BJP’s Sushil Kumar Modi said the body has not prosecuted a single person accused of corruption to date and its performance seems to be far from satisfactory, the New Indian Express reported.
While the Lokpal Act was passed in 2013, the first Lokpal was appointed in 2019 with eight members.
According to the panel, only three complaints were fully investigated and nearly 90% of the complaints were disposed of.
The anti-corruption body is also required to have a prosecution wing and an inquiry wing to prosecute guilty public servants but both are yet to be constituted. The body has 32 members against the sanctioned strength of 82.
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