BENGALURU: Slamming Chief Minister Siddaramiah's government, Justice AN Venugopala Gowda of the Karnataka High Court questioned the establishment of the Anti-Corruption Bureau that has visibly weakened the state's Lokayukta. “Is this the man who walked down from Bengaluru to Ballari to fight corruption?” the judge asked without taking the CM's name.
He said the ACB has paralysed the Lokayukta system and created a vacuum with neither the Lokayukta police nor ACB receiving complaints against corruption for the past 15 days. “Why did you ask the Lokayukta police not to register complaints? Have you not created a vacuum? We've seen people leaving the country itself if a day is delayed in registering a complaint. It does not appear that consultation at different levels was taken before the decision to create the ACB. Your manifesto is to strengthen the Lokayukta, but brazen action could be seen taking place in last 15 days.”
Reading out more than a dozen verdicts of the Supreme Court pertaining to corruption, Justice Gowda said no day goes in the country without corruption. “So, was it not the topmost priority of the government to make Lokayukta police wing functional? It becomes difficult to survive where corruption is neglected,” he said. He also asked the Additional Advocate General (AAG) A S Ponnanna to provide details of ACB’s progress, who said they would alter the manual prepared for Lokayukta police as per the requirement of ACB and its office has opened in Khanija Bhavan.
