The fountain of our scriptures holds in the reference of Lokapaal' Dusdigapaal"- it's believed that the Universe is guarded by Lokapaal & Dusdigapaal' in ten vantage points to maintain' justice, truth, honesty, and rule of law in order to maintain sanctity in Universe'. From this stemmed the concept of Lokpal, whose modern branching is Lokayukta's at the state level. The intention of this elaboration is to Inculcate the basis on which these Concept, structure rests!
Our state boasted to be one of the primary states having the institution of Lokpal but soon it gave way to an amended setting in its working, which also prescribed for lokayukta's at each state to see, inquire, investigate the humongous issues of Corruption, as it's exact the opposite of basics of rule, & order. In the absence of maintaining the basic rule governing a society, a humanity there may be huge chaos and, disorder hence in a modern setting this institution of Lokpal has it's own uniqueness as it's the sanctifier in our system. The intention of the sacredness of this institution was designed over & above all frailties but as we, humans have our own follies so also an institution can never claim to be over & above all the dimes of prejudices, nexus, vested-ness or anything more! The dichotomy rises when knowingly blatant violations or exact opposite norms are found sizzles it's work pattern! Such institutions are created to safeguard the democratic rule of law, and sanctity in our public institutions as these were run with taxpayers' money in bulk! It's believed that persons holding posts in these public institutions were given perks in huge lakhs- by govt so that they wouldn't engage in activities that are detrimental to the dignity of such institutions but it's truant that knowing this we found many acts which defy the ethos, integrity of such bodies in its sanctified avatars'. In fact Information Commission & Lokpal are two such modern democratic institutions funded by govt on taxpayers' money to guard, and maintain the sanctity of the whole stratum of governance working! They're akin to Eyes & Nose- Information Commission are eyes while Lokpal, Lokayukta institutions are nose: through eyes the govt, the people see' truth' while through Lokpal, Lokayukta it breathes. Any taintedness in breathing can faint, fumble in fact collapse the govt' which our Lokpal and lokayukta' are believed to be but due to some straw' ( person with uncanny ability) once in a while holding on its posts have roll down it's way of working! The objective of these case studies' elaborated is simply to awaken in making these public democratic institutions to live in true sense of it's founding flames.
Higher-ups include in our society ho'ble ministers, judges, civil servants etc & when they indulge in practices other than the sanctioned one it's often termed as corruption, and unethical Acts on this our Lokpal, Lokayukta were ordained justices' but very truantly we find such people often acts beyond the plethora of rules giving a big escape to established principles of society! Decades ago when there was somehow the Lokpal institution working in the state, a rule-defiant case or misgovernance issue of a civil servant was brought before it for adjudication. The matter ran for around four years, On every date the litigant used to remain present but on no date did the delinquent official ever attend' & the matter was decided expert. Even in that export order Lokpal institution sidetracked the several omissions made by this public official'. Neither the officer ever cared to reply, respond to the few notices that were sent by then Lokpal office'. It was a time when manual typewriters were used in typing court orders of learned justices. Whatever the order, not an iota of it affects the misgoverned acts of that public servant & ladder after ladder he rode on to his serving career & due for retirement with hefty benefits of pay, perks, and pensions! Then perhaps Lokpal was an embodiment of venting out the deep frustratingness of certain passionate people' who acted & believed in this institution as the ultimate one to tackle one corrupt, corruption in society.
Swiftly time changes with technology, the surge of e-filing, e-courts hearing when people saw the reemergence of Anna' with his advocacy for the Lokpal institution to curb corruption' during 2011-13 it advent to setting up of multimember Lokpal, Lokayukta institution' believing that ' one man may go differently' but multimember conglomerate may never go hunky-dory and accordingly multimember domain have been set up everywhere in our federal structure' to tame corruption, graft, misgovernance etc. Around a decade has already passed since this work but citizens have different perceptions of this institution eg; there was enough corruption, and these have another avenue for public money spending" to another white elephant, as it's order has no or zero effects etc. In this regard, it's found that the earlier Lokpal order on the public officer till. date not implemented nor any punitive measure was taken even beyond two decades; so naturally today's e-court oriented working have different connotations, as in getting a petition from someone affected, or those who wish to tame corruption it usually either remains shut or their no response from this people's caretaker' office, rather on repeated submissions it's replied, your petition was not as per such & such rules, such formats, such declarations etc; thereby giving jolt to those corruption curb enthusiasts who after few rounds found left the pitch! A corruption matter on some blocks was filed by one, but there's no response nor even technology to his given mobile, email. A few days after the person was charged by two block officials' How dare you file a complaint on us' and there was an argument, which turned to an attack but thanks few local villagers mediation saved the enthusiast from personal attack! Later on, it was found that there were frivolous complaints in the name of that person to simply tame his movement of filing complaints in this August body! Very often the complainant usually not get any information on the status of one's complaint nor acknowledgement from it saving the course of corruption eradicating exercise in public. How long can one go on filing complaint after complaint? The officiating employees to aid & assist Lokpal are found to be giving leak of information to counterparts as a result personal, physical attacks on corruption warriors are on the rise, so also with RTI activists. Our society has yet to develop the resilience in yet to accept that in a democracy like ours, it's often the critique, the complainant, and the opposition that have equal value as silencing these with underlying methods are brutal act of setting aside ' a major player in democracy!
A case on a group of civil servants was repeatedly filed before Lokpal, Lokayukta to take stock of the corruption' but every time there's Stoic silence' and the petitioner to date clueless about the progress in their allegations which involves massive sums of public money, as the official are in their posts rather on elevated positions. So for them, there's no meaning in approaching Lokpal, and Lokayukta if their complaints on corruption remain mum! Adhering to proper format, affidavit, declaration, signing, and dating though were essential parts of carrying the roster of justice further but clinging to these formalities may impede the progress towards graft-free government, which everybody witnessed. At times on repeated asking, one surprised too. Find a reply like-' there is. No date hence not progressed there's no signature on each page, the complaint though was received in 2019 but on repeated follow-ups given such & such pleas of compliance etc.
If a case filed by one in 2019 was asked repeatedly then after five years the People's Protector's office informed this then where lies the sanctity? It's as good as not filing anything with it, a preferred talk very often one may find, along with the opinion that every expenditure on these counts are waste of huge public money! Which literally are truths of our times' Hence shall our people's protector' Lokpal Lokayukta offices are here to cling on formats filing, overseeing signs, dates or with the gravity of the case, complain! So long we stick to outer ornamental templates it would be difficult for us to go inward, deeper into the crux of corruption problems, or misuse of office issues by our public servants!
A complaint on big institutions was filed before it and months after the about to complete tenure in the Lokpal office was made a guest with pompous felicitations to other largesse and months after the complaint on it was found close by it! Such lackadaisical or labyrinth working by vacating holders in our multimember team hidden from the public gaze for a time but not all the time! In yet another issue complaints on a few officers were filed by some corruption warrior but it was making rounds & rounds with remarks' only filed but not proceeded due to noncompliance' etc. The issue here is corruption or noncompliance! As we all know, these institutions were formed to safeguard departments, PSU etc from festering in a corrupt way of working hence the focus needs to be on it but sizeably making compliance seeking on formats more than the contents of a complaint was never the vision of its framers! Well, the compliance provision was inserted to junk anonymous, frivolous to such complains as a way to protect the misuse of these public institutions rules but not to discourage a genuine complaint on corruption on sticking with its compliance parts! But sadly sticking on procedure rule formats is unnecessarily killing the virtue of making these wholistic public democratic institutions in taming corruption now.
A holder on this prime body was found hobnobbing with political leaders, sharing the dais at certain political meetings in public forgetting that such open activities may demean the post one holds! Another one was found using the official vehicle for the promotion of his own organisation elsewhere, and others were found availing huge medical claim reimbursement for the renovation of houses in huge public money expenses! Such acts at times though don't draw the attention of the public in society but nonetheless come in our rattling social media age, where every private thing become public, those that may occur in accordance with permissible rules, practices, and norms were passed the tests those that didn't may come under severe scanner. In fact, our govt has ensured a very high perk amount for all the holders in these public protecting institutions but when some of them stoop to different levels to satiate more it's the alarm ring for the decline of these highly public utility institutions. The holder's integrity, ethical working, and honesty reflect in these institutions and dedicated persons from society be included in its scheme of things and not always those dear to few in govt of times! It's easy to put superannuated people on these posts mostly officials which then again raises the question of whether it's public-oriented working or official-oriented working in taming corruption. All these years when many of our officials have developed a set pattern way of working but these instead allow corruption to grow like octopus tentacles than drawing different work styles to infuse innovative citizen-centric ways of working needs to have experimented for better results in this direction as new possibilities, a new line of working pattern could accelerate in engaging the large spectrum of the populace to strengthen these public institutions, which despite its capacities to change, reform are rotting in a conundrum way suited to few in govt- these ultimately were not worth the amount of public money spent on it!