Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik explains why the state has no Lokayukta

BHUBANESHWAR: After three days’ impasse, the Odisha assembly returned to normalcy after Naveen Patnaik’s government finally explained why it does not have a Lokayukta and has not had one for four years.

Opposition parties in Odisha, led by the Leader of the Opposition Narsingh Mishra, had managed to stall work over the issue. Ironically, the Indian National Congress had the Bharatiya Janata Party on its side over this issue. The Congress leader pointed out that while Odisha had been the first to announce a state act, after the UPA II’s Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013, it never appointed a Lokayukta.

On Wednesday the Speaker, Pradip Kumar Amat, convened an all party meeting. And on Thursday the government finally explained its stand. “Matters pertaining to Lokayuktas with respect to different states are pending before Supreme Court. The Odisha government will examine the orders passed by the apex court and appropriate action will be taken after examination of the same,” said Bikram Keshari Arukha, Parliamentary Affairs Minister.


The Act would bring the Chief Minister, ex-CMs, other ministers and public servants under the purview of a six-member anti-corruption body to be headed by either a sitting or former High Court judge. The Odisha Lokayukta Bill 2014 was passed in the Assembly in February 2014, it received the President's nod on January 28, 2015.

It has never been notified though. "The old Odisha Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, 1995 thus stands, and has not been repealed. “It has been four years since Odisha’s Lokayukta dies, why has the CM not nominate a Lokayukta under the old act,” says Mishra, a former Law Minister himself.