Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The government lacks any clear provision to probe complaints against the ministers.
The personnel department probes complaints against the IAS officers, the home department deals with inquiry against the IPS officers, and the forest department investigates plaints against the IFS officers. But the government is in short of clarity about who will probe the complaints against the ministers.
The case has led to a debate after former legislator Kishor Samrite complained about the minister of the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), Sampatiya Uikey. There was an order for an inquiry against the minister after the complaint.
The plaint was sent to the Prime Minister’s Office. The PMO sent the complaint to the office of the Chief Secretary, which forwarded it to the principal secretary (PS) of the PHED.
On the basis of the letter, PS forwarded the complaint to the Engineer-in-Chief (E-in-C), who directed two officers to probe the case.
The E-in-C does not have any authority to inquire into the complaint. But the government is unable to say anything about what action should be taken in such cases. According to sources, the government may set guidelines to deal with such cases in the coming days.
The ministers also come under the definition of a public servant. Complaints against them may be sent to Lokayukta and EOW. But before sending the complaints to any probe agency, one has to take permission from the government under Section 17A.
Nevertheless, there are clear provisions that the probe agencies do not have to take permission from anyone in case the minister is involved in corruption in their personal capacity.
On the other hand, the government does not have any authority to set up an inquiry against a minister.
According to a senior officer, the government is not clear about what kind of inquiry should be set up against the minister to sift through the complaint. But if there is any complaint against a minister, it can be sent to the chief minister, who can take a decision over the issue.
