Meghalaya Assembly rejects private bill to strengthen Lokayukta Act 2021

Assembly Speaker Thomas Sangma put the Bill to voice-vote, the house rejected it.

The Meghalaya Lokayukta (Amendment) Bill, 2024 introduced by the opposition Voice of the People Party (VPP) MLA Adelbert Nongrum was rejected through voice vote in the Assembly today.

Introducing the Bill during the session, Nongrum said that the amendment to the Lokayukta Act, 2021 has diluted the effective functioning of Lokayukta in the state, by making radical changes to the strength of Lokayukta members and composition of judicial benches that it no longer bears resemblance to what was originally in the principal enactment.

“The proposed amendment intends to give more teeth to the existing Act and make it more effective by enacting the essential provisions of the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, that were deleted and substituted by the Amendment Act of 2021,” he told the Assembly.

Nongrum said, “the battle against corruption has made people to look to the only institution that has given us a ray of hope. We are seeing a threat to the administrative autonomy and independent functioning of the Lokayukta.”

The VPP legislator further added, “By allowing option of a single-member body of just the chairperson alone, and without the mandatory appointment of judicial members in what is statutorily a judicial body, the amendment Act, 2021 has practically weakened the role of the Lokayukta in the state.”

“The present Meghalaya Lokayukta Act has been robbed of the essential provisions which flowed from the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act of parliament, and mirrored not just the objective but the provisions as well,” he said.

Nongrum stated that the Private Members’ Bill seek to protect and strengthen the institution of Lokayukta in the state, so as to effectively deal with rising cases of corruption by public functionaries, to re-enact the essential provisions of the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, that were deleted and substituted by the Amendment Act of 2021 and to amend the existing Meghalaya Lokayukta Act for giving it more teeth and more effectiveness that it deserves.

“I seek to introduce my Private Members’ Bill namely the Meghalaya Lokayukta (Amendment) Bill, 2024. What the people of the state are expecting from this august house today, is a voice in support of Lokayukta, and a voice against the virus of corruption,” he said.

When Assembly Speaker Thomas Sangma put the Bill to voice-vote, the house rejected it.

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