Chennai: Rights activists have raised concern over the Parliament hurriedly approving a Bill to amend Section 44 the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act (LL Act) to indefinitely extend the deadline for the public servants to declare their assets and also to exempt the spouse and dependent children of a public servant from declaring.
The activists fear that the proposed amendment would dilute the LL act and favours the corrupt. After the Lok Sabha passed the LL amendment bill on Wednesday, the Upper House gave its assent very next day. AS of now, Section 44 of the LL act requires the mandatory public disclosure of the assets and liabilities statements by public servants on the official websites of their ministries and departments by July 31 every year.
According to the LL amendment bill 2016 moved in the LS, it seeks to extend the deadline indefinitely while doing away with this proactive disclosure requirement and also exempt the spouse and dependent children of the public servant from declaring the assets.
Jayaraman Venkatesan of Arappor Iyakkam which is actively campaigning for setting up of Lokayukta in the state and also drafted a model Lokpal bill termed the proposed amendment made to the LL act in Lok Sabha as a clear effort to dilute the act.
“Generally, most ministers and politicians accumulate wealth in the name of spouse and their children. We noticed such a trend when we analysed the affidavits of candidates contesting in the recently held Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. A considerable number of affidavits of politicians indicated huge accumulation of wealth in the name of spouse and their children,” he told DC. The amendment would dilute the LL act in a big way and it would only add strength to the corrupt, he said.
RTI activist V. Gopalakrishnan stated that at present all candidates contesting elections to parliament, the state legislatures, and the offices of the President and the Vice President of India are also required to furnish an affidavit declaring their assets and liabilities of him along with spouse and dependent children besides data about their educational background and criminal antecedents, if any, to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
He wondered when the affidavits of contesting candidates were openly available on the ECI website and displayed on the notice boards of the returning officers prior to elections, what was the need to do away with proactive disclosure and exempting spouse and dependent children from declaring assets.
