Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday said Lok Pal or Lok Ayukta will not help cleanse corruption and asserted that the need of the hour was to bring in electoral reforms to enable transparency in the system.
“State funding of elections and transparency in political donations are a good option,” Gehlot said adding that state funding can help curb use of black money in election campaign and funds.
The Chief Minister was in the city to honour Dr A S Soin with the R D Birla National Award for his work in the development of Liver Transplant in India.
Gehlot said corrupt practices were seen even in the Medical Council of India (MCI) referring to the disgraced former MCI Chairman Ketan Desai who was arrested on corruption charges.
He said his state had done away with the discretionary powers of the Chief Ministers and ministers as suggested by UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and even put assets and liabilities of bureaucrats on the website.
“Recently, we took a decision to ask 45,000 state government employees to declare their assets, failing which action like stopping their promotions would be taken,” Gehlot said. Earlier, he honoured Dr Arvinder Singh Soin, the Delhi-based liver transplant and hepatobiliary surgeon, with the award which carries cash prize of Rs 5,00,000, a memento and citation. Soin said he was contributing the prize money to the liver fund set up by him for children belonging to economically weaker sections.
