New political party Nagaland Congress urges State Government to address rampant corruption
DIMAPUR, AUGUST 8 (MExN): The new political party Nagaland Congress today urged the Nagaland State Government to constitute a Lokayukta without any further delay.
A press note from the Nagaland Congress General Secretary, Vaprumo Demo asked the state government to admit that Nagaland “is Problem State, weighed down with political indecisiveness, mis-governance, economic logjam, development breakdown etc on one side and rampant corruption, scam after scam and social uprising on the other side...
It lamented that problems are “escalating day by day due to absence of government’s accountability and critical mass of people side by side.” “These are problems also found elsewhere but enormity of the problem in Nagaland has
surpassed that of other states and not without reason Nagaland is listed most corrupted state in India,” it added.
The Nagaland Congress lamented that “from top to bottom, from government to village level whether in public, private or administrative sectors the powers that be are deeply involved in the mesh of corruption and the scope of accountability almost down to zero.”
It reasoned that despite the size of funds allotted by the Government of India, most of it is “gobbled down” by people in power, leaving “only leftover crumb for the common people.” “Yet the little that common people earned is again directly or indirectly collected by series of NPGs,” it added.
The Nagaland Congress said that the recent appeal of the Governor of Nagaland, P B Acharya to the State Government to immediately enact the Lokayukta Bill is apparently a reaction to the government’s dilly dally over the pending Bill already tabled in the 12th Nagaland Legislative Assembly Session a year ago on July 21, 2015.
“Meantime multiple scams like fuel adulteration, pension, scholarship and others burst out and he was forced to make the appeal. But as Governor of the State he is constitutionally bound to give advice and not appeal to the State Government to fulfil a constitutional obligation as important as Lokayukta,” the Nagaland Congress pointed out.
It further viewed the state government’s “unwillingness” to constitute the anti-corruption body as a sign that “erring elective public functionaries and bureaucrats will become the first casualty.” “Whatever it maybe unless Lokayukta is instituted corruption is bound to destroy the very basis of the welfare state,” it added.
Considering the “frightening nature of corruption and irregularity in the state,” the Nagaland Congress urged the State Government to immediately constitute a Lokayukta without dragging further the matter “on some nonsensical pretext.”
“There is no justifiable reason- political, legal or moral to rationalise continued corruption and irregularity or because some states also have not yet constituted Lokayukta there is no reason for the state to sleep over the imperative demand of aggrieved public as represented by few sensitized pressure groups and individuals,” it added.
Calling for a joint effort to uproot corruption, the Nagaland Congress urged upon every likeminded pressure group and individual to pool in their potential strength and put coordinated pressure on the reluctant state government to constitute Lokayukta with immediate effect.
