Will it be ninth time lucky? Forty-two years after it was first introduced, the Lokpal Bill will be introduced in Parliament for the ninth time on Thursday, but will most probably end up with the standing committee for lengthy discussions and is unlikely to meet Anna Hazare’s deadline of August 16.
This while Anna Hazare reacted sharply on Tuesday, writing an open letter to the MPs in which he said the government’s bill doesn’t have anything in it to address the corruption faced by the common man.
Anna in any case doesn’t want this government’s Lokpal Bill. Having said that, chances are the bill would remain with the standing committee for a long time.
Some members like Congress’ Manish Tewari have plans to put up a dissenting note on the bill. Tewari would argue that the Lokpal would not affect the war against corruption unless the existing agencies were strengthened.
“He feels that the government needs to address the issue of making existing agencies like CBI independent of the government. If that is done, there wouldn’t be any need for a Lokpal at all,” a senior party functionary said.
Tewari has already filed a private member’s bill in Parliament seeking to make the CBI an independent investigating agency.
That means the fight between the government and Team Anna would escalate as the government has virtually ignored Team-A’s Jan Lokpal Bill and has MPs cutting across party lines giving it tacit support.
Parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said, “The Lokpal Bbill will be introduced on Thursday.
We have already given notice but there are certain requirements about the preparation of the bill.
” The bill has not been circulated. “Members have to receive the copies,” he said, adding that this would be done on Wednesday.
Plan to bring Lokpal bill to standing halt“In all probability, it (bill) would be introduced on Thursday,” Bansal said.
However, the Parliamentary standing committee on personnel, public grievances, law and justice, where the bill would likely end up after introduction, appeared to agree that the bill needed greater deliberation before it got passed.
Committee chairman and Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi refused to comment but his colleagues from other parties offered tacit support to the government.
Samajwadi Party’s Shailendra Kumar told DNA, “The bill should be first sent to all MPs, then to Parliament’s standing committee and after that should come for discussion.” Bahujan Samaj Party’s Vijay Bahadur Singh agreed that the bill could go “both ways” but that the speaker would have to take the final call.
Tewari refused to comment on his plans to put in a dissenting note but told DNA that he was unhappy with the proposed Lokpal Bill.
Meanwhile, Anna kept up his anti-government bill blitz. “My fast from August 16 is not against Parliament but against government’s weak bill. I hope the country’s Parliament while following its tradition and duty and prevent introduction of such an anti-poor bill by the government,” said Hazare in his open letter.
Earlier in the day, Team Anna formed a 22-member core committee for the Lokpal movement. The committee in its first meeting on Tuesday discussed the need for Anna’s indefinite fast, and a venue for it. Justice N Santosh Hegde had recently said that Anna should not sit on an indefinite fast this time and should opt for some other way.
But the 22-member committee endorsed Anna Hazare’s decision to go on an indefinite fast stating that there was no other way left.
This while Anna Hazare reacted sharply on Tuesday, writing an open letter to the MPs in which he said the government’s bill doesn’t have anything in it to address the corruption faced by the common man.
Anna in any case doesn’t want this government’s Lokpal Bill. Having said that, chances are the bill would remain with the standing committee for a long time.
Some members like Congress’ Manish Tewari have plans to put up a dissenting note on the bill. Tewari would argue that the Lokpal would not affect the war against corruption unless the existing agencies were strengthened.
“He feels that the government needs to address the issue of making existing agencies like CBI independent of the government. If that is done, there wouldn’t be any need for a Lokpal at all,” a senior party functionary said.
Tewari has already filed a private member’s bill in Parliament seeking to make the CBI an independent investigating agency.
That means the fight between the government and Team Anna would escalate as the government has virtually ignored Team-A’s Jan Lokpal Bill and has MPs cutting across party lines giving it tacit support.
Parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said, “The Lokpal Bbill will be introduced on Thursday.
We have already given notice but there are certain requirements about the preparation of the bill.
” The bill has not been circulated. “Members have to receive the copies,” he said, adding that this would be done on Wednesday.
Plan to bring Lokpal bill to standing halt“In all probability, it (bill) would be introduced on Thursday,” Bansal said.
However, the Parliamentary standing committee on personnel, public grievances, law and justice, where the bill would likely end up after introduction, appeared to agree that the bill needed greater deliberation before it got passed.
Committee chairman and Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi refused to comment but his colleagues from other parties offered tacit support to the government.
Samajwadi Party’s Shailendra Kumar told DNA, “The bill should be first sent to all MPs, then to Parliament’s standing committee and after that should come for discussion.” Bahujan Samaj Party’s Vijay Bahadur Singh agreed that the bill could go “both ways” but that the speaker would have to take the final call.
Tewari refused to comment on his plans to put in a dissenting note but told DNA that he was unhappy with the proposed Lokpal Bill.
Meanwhile, Anna kept up his anti-government bill blitz. “My fast from August 16 is not against Parliament but against government’s weak bill. I hope the country’s Parliament while following its tradition and duty and prevent introduction of such an anti-poor bill by the government,” said Hazare in his open letter.
Earlier in the day, Team Anna formed a 22-member core committee for the Lokpal movement. The committee in its first meeting on Tuesday discussed the need for Anna’s indefinite fast, and a venue for it. Justice N Santosh Hegde had recently said that Anna should not sit on an indefinite fast this time and should opt for some other way.
But the 22-member committee endorsed Anna Hazare’s decision to go on an indefinite fast stating that there was no other way left.
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