Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has finally begun the process to implement the Lokayukta Act, which was passed in 2014 and received the Presidential assent in 2015.

Odisha was the first state in the country to pass the Lokayukta Bill. However, it took four years to implement the same. The Opposition parties had been criticising the Naveen Patnaik government for the delay in appointment of Lokayukta, which is supposed to probe into corruption charges against people in high offices including that of the chief minister.

The Supreme Court had directed all the states to take immediate action and report compliance by July 10, 2018. Nine states, including Odisha, are yet to appoint an ombudsman. The state government had earlier taken the plea that the matter was pending before the apex court and that it would take action only after the order. The court, however, had said that despite the Odisha Lokayukta being in force since January 16, 2015, steps for framing search committee rules were still underway. The post has remained vacant since January 22, 2013. The bench had directed: "The state shall take immediate steps for appointment of Lokayutka and the process shall be completed at the earliest." In view of the order, the state government has started the process.

The Congress, BJP and CPM had stalled the proceedings of the budget session in April for days together on the issue.

Law secretary Bibhuprasad Routray told The Telegraph: "The Lokayukta Act was notified in the state's gazette on Wednesday. It was the responsibility of the Law department and we have done it. Now it's now up to the general administration department, which is the nodal department, to enforce it."

Official sources said the next steps would be the framing of the Rules to Lokayukta Act and giving effect to the Rules and the Act.

A senior officer of the general administration department said: "We have already sent the draft rules to the law department for its vetting. Then the government will notify the Rules and issue a notification for giving effect to the Act from the date to be decided by the government."

The next course of action will be formation of the search committee, which will look for suitable candidate to hold the office of Lokayukta. Then the government will appoint the ombudsman as per the recommendation of the search committee, said the official.

The Odisha Lokayukta Act stipulates that the chairman of the Lokayukta will be either a sitting or a former high court judge and the commission will consist of at least two judicial members. From among non-judicial members, one will be either from women, scheduled caste, scheduled tribe or minority category on rotation basis. It will be a six member body and the term of office will be five years.

The Lokayukta will be chosen by a search committee headed by the chief minister. The other members of the committee will include the leader of the Opposition, the speaker of the Assembly, Chief Justice of Orissa High Court or a judge nominated by him and an eminent jurist nominated by the governor.