With the government seeming in no hurry to appoint a Lokayukta, the Save Lokayukta campaign appears to have lost steam. The campaign which took off last year with several prominent citizens from across Karnataka joining in, came up with names of four retired judges for the post when the government claimed it could not come up with more suitable candidates than the ones suggested already.
Despite the presence of prominent Bengalureans on the committee, the Save Lokayukta campaign was largely ignored by the government. What seemed to take the fizz out of the campaign was however, the HC ruling on the appointment of Justice Chandrashekharaiah as Upa Lokayukta, which took the whole issue into the realm of legalities.
“Although we have been fighting for the appointment of a Lokyukta, the government has not acted on any of our suggestions so far. It did not respond to any of the names suggested by our committee and no responsible officer gave us an appointment to discuss the issue,” regrets a volunteer with the campaign, Prithvi Reddy, suggesting that the state government should now suggest five names for the post rather than just one.
“The constitutional functionaries responsible for approving a candidate for the Lokayukta’s post can select one of the five. It just creates more probability of building a consensus and could hasten the process of appointing the Lokayukta. Otherwise, if one name is proposed and rejected, the entire process must start all over again. This is simply too time consuming. The state has already waited too long for a Lokayukta,” she stresses.