Corrupt won’t be spared: Mukul

By Our Reporter

SHILLONG, MAY 11: Chief Minister Mukul Sangma today maintained that erring government officials involved in corruption practices will not be allowed to go “scot free”.

“We are cracking the whip on such illegal activities and nobody is going to go scot free, they will have to go through legal action,” Sangma told reporters at the sidelines of a cabinet meeting held here on Thursday.

He was referring to the many instances of irregularities while reacting to an RTI finding which revealed the alleged corruption practices in the sericulture department of the state government.

According to him based on detailed inputs which are available with the state government further action will be taken.

Sangma said there are many other instances which have come to his notice and in which he had given direction to file FIRs leading to number of persons being arrested.

A number of arrests were made by the West Garo Hills Police in respect of illegal mining and transportation of stone from Garo Hills region, he said.

“All these instances whenever it comes to the notice of the government, we are ensuring that all these instances of illegal activities do not go unpunished. We will ensure that the existence of the law is known by everybody,” the CM added.

Emphasizing the need to create a strong deterrence by ensuring effective implementation of the existing laws, he said that this will prevent people from engaging in something that are not legal.

According to him, there are certain rules and such rules and when they are violated, the violators of the rule have to pay the price and cannot get away, so this will create deterrence.

On the other hand, Sangma however said the laws will only become a deterrent when people are aware about their existence.

Stating that his government is serious on the issue, the chief minister said in view of this, the government had come up with the Lokayukta Act and Social Auditing Act.

“This shows the complete commitment with which the government wants to create a system that will enable the state to have very efficient and corrupt free governance in the future,” he added.