Govt under pressure to include PM in Lokpal

Government on Tuesday came under intense pressure from political parties to include the office of Prime Minister, Group C and D employees and the anti-corruption wing of CBI within the purview of the Lokpal Bill.

Ahead of the all-party meeting on the Lokpal Bill convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here on Wednesday, parties including BJP, the Left and BSP made their position clear on the issue which they said will pursue at Wednesday’s meeting.

The Prime Minister discussed the Bill with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and top Congress leaders and ministerial colleagues in the Core Group today ahead of the meeting with UPA allies in the evening.

Government has given indications that it may not not be averse to the inclusion of Prime Minister within the ambit of the ombudsman.

It is expected to fine tune its strategy after the discussions with allies and at the all-party meeting.

The BJP parliamentary party met on Tuesday under the chairmanship of L.K. Advani and decided to press for the inclusion of Prime Minister, lower bureaucracy and Citizens' Charter under Lokpal at the all-party meeting on Wednesday.

It also decided to move amendments in the Bill after consultation with other parties in case the government does not accept its proposals.

"Tomorrow the government has called an all-party meeting to discuss the nitty gritty of the Lokpal Bill. Our members have already given a dissent note before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Lokpal Bill.

"We will press for that in tomorrow's meeting. If they don't agree, then we will try and bring amendment in the Lokpal Bill after consultation with other political parties," BJP leader S.S. Ahluwalia told reporters after the meeting. Mayawati wants PM, CBI, Group C employees in Lokpal ambit

In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati accused the Congress of being soft on corruption and demanded that the Prime Minister, CBI, Group C and D employees be brought under the ambit of Lokpal.

She said her party would oppose the bill in its present form both at Wednesday's meeting and in Parliament.

Citing the Commonwealth, 2G and Adarsh Society scams, she said that Congress' "lackadaisical policy indicates that it does not want to create a strong mechanism against corruption as maximum leaders and ministers of that party would be affected".

CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters that the Lokpal to be strong and effective should include the Prime Minister, CBI's anti-corruption wing and inclusion of lower bureaucracy within the purview of the Bill.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/113097" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: &lt;a&gt; &lt;em&gt; &lt;strong&gt; &lt;cite&gt; &lt;code&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;dl&gt; &lt;dt&gt; &lt;dd&gt;</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-23b4ce148e49d91d1fe7dadac9553c65" value="form-23b4ce148e49d91d1fe7dadac9553c65" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="90603887" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

I want to begin with a little story that was told to me by a leading executive at Aptech. He was exercising in a gym with a lot of younger people.

Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen didn’t make the cut. Neither did Shaji Karun’s Piravi, which bagged 31 international awards.