Sisodia calls for strong Ombudsman Bill in Gujarat

Ahmedabad, June 17 (ANI): Veteran social activist Anna Hazare's aide

nish Sisodia on Sunday urged the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government in Gujarat to implement a strong Ombudsman Bill in the state similar to Uttarakhand.

Sisodia, who met a team of social activists here today, discussed the loopholes in the current act of the state and graph a new strong act.

"Today, we had discussions with the social activists of Gujarat, who had gathered to discuss about the state ombudsman act which is very weak. This act talks about how to protect the corrupt officers, ministers and even the chief minister and help them continue with their corruption work. It does not talk about how to punish the people involved in corruption be it chief minister or any other minister. This act should be immediately thrown into the trash box and a new act should be made," said Sisodia.

"And I believe that the state government should take inspiration from their party, who had brought a strong and effective ombudsman in Uttarakhand. They should bring a similar act, otherwise, the way corruption is prevalent in Gujarat it would reap no benefit," he added.

Gujarat Government had earlier challenged the appointment of Justice (retired) R.A. Mehta as the State Lokayukta. The post was lying vacant since 2003.

The government had argued that the appointment was challenged because Congress backed the state ombudsman and the governor seemed to be acting at behest of the opposition party.

However, rift emerged between Modi Government and Governor Kamla Beniwal after the former alleged breach of the term of the constitution, as Beniwal had failed to act on the advice of the council of ministers under Article 163 and had appointed Justice Mehta as the state ombudsman in August last year.

In October last year, two judges of the High Court announced a split verdict and eventually the case was referred to a third judge, Justice Sahai. (ANI)