Bengaluru: Moving a motion in the State Legislative Assembly seeking ouster of Upa-Lokayukta Justice Subhash Adi is seen as efforts by the state government to get rid of the Lokayukta institution itself and usher in Lokpal in its place.
A ruling party leader told Deccan Chronicle that the government was committed to zero tolerance for corruption for which seeking removal of Lokayukta and Upa Lokayukta was the first step.
Ultimately, the government wants to get rid of the Lokayukta system and install Lokpal which is considered powerful in dealing with corruption. Even seeking removal of Upa Lokayukta Justice Adi was long pending following complaints from many legislators and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wanted the motion for his removal to be moved along with the motion for removal of Lokayukta Justice Y Bhaskar Rao.
The government had collected documents to prove charges against Upa Lokayukta on certain issues and the same would be supplied to Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa for the next course of action. Unfortunately, the opposition parties were trying to give a caste colour to the episode, said sources.
Meanwhile, Congress Chief Whip in the Assembly Ashok Pattan refuted allegations that he got the signatures of 75 legislators to move a motion seeking removal of Upa Lokayukta Adi, without showing them the copy of petition. "I will challenge those who are making this allegation to complain to party bosses. I am ready to prove that the signatures were taken only after asking them to go through the petition. In fact, I insisted that they read the document before putting their signature. They are not small children to sign the document without reading it. Some ministers called me to put their signature on the petition.”
He claimed that postponement of Congress Legislators’ Party meeting from Monday to Thursday had nothing to do with the motion to remove the Upa Lokayukta. The meeting was put off in view of the visit of AICC Vice-President Rahul Gandhi to Bengaluru on Wednesday.
Ugrappa defends
Congress member in the Council V.S. Ugrappa defended the government's decision to move a motion seeking removal of Upa Lokayukta Adi. He said he had been speaking about the omissions and commissions of Upa Lokayukta both in the Belagavi and Bengaluru session.
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