No Lokpal: Govt spends Rs 5 crore on office!

As many as 1,500 complaint-files are gathering dust and officials are taking away salary each month, but a sweeper is opening the whole premises once a day.

This is the operational condition of the Office of Lokpal, Odisha sans its guardian, Lokpal.

The State Government, which claims to  be the first State in the country having passed the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act,  has not appointed a Lokpal for the last five years since January 22, 2013, the day incumbent Lokpal Prasanna Kumar Patra passed away, but has spent Rs5 crore for running the office.

Notably, the Lokpal office was established with an aim to check corruption, inefficiency, misgovernance and misuse of Government funds at all levels in the Government system.

According to information, there was no Lokpal system in any other State in the year 1970 when such an Act was passed in Odisha Assembly. However, 13 years were taken to frame rules to implement the Act. Justice Balkrushna Patra was appointed as the first Lokpal of Odisha in 1983 followed by Justice Sukant Kumar Ray on 1989, Justice PK Mohapatra in 1997 ad Justice Sarat Chandra Mohapatra in 2003.

While in office, Justice Prasanna Kumar Patra died on January 22, 2013, and since then no Lokpal has been appointed.

While about 1,500 complaint-files are gathering dust, no new complaint is received due to absence a Lokpal. Interestingly, a sweeper opens the office once a day to clean the floors. The office has vehicles and phones and some other staffs.

During the Lokpal movement spearheaded by Anna Hazare, the Government said it would pass the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act within three months of the Act passed in the Parliament and assented by the President. While the President approved the Central Act in 2014, the State Government decided to form a multi-membered Lokayukta in the same year. But four years have passed, the State Government is yet to begin a process for appointment of either a Lokpal or Lokayukta.