Lokpal report tabled; cabinet agenda dec. 14
With the parliamentary standing committee submitting its report on Lokpal in the two Houses of Parliament, another round of controversy broke out on Friday as Team Anna accused the panel of fooling people. They questioned the credibility of the report, as they claimed that only 12 of the 30 MPs supported the final report.
Standing committee chairman Abhishek Manu Singhvi, however, claimed that dissent notes by members do not mean that they are “not in sync with the final report”.
Mr Singhvi said, “The members have objections to one or the other provision, but not to the entire report.” The government, in the mean time, has asked Team Anna to hold back any agitation till the bill is passed.
Anna Hazare, who has been spearheading the agitation for a strong Lokpal and has proposed to go on a day-long agitation at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on Sunday, is reported to have alleged that the proposals would not help in fighting graft.
Sources in the government believed that the bill could come up for discussion at a meeting of the Union Cabinet likely on December 14 and it would be brought for consideration on December 19.
Mr Singhvi said that the committee has favoured an “equilibrium in power” among the “trinity” of the Lokpal, CBI and the CVC under which the CBI would not be subordinate to the ombudsman and rejected independent phone-tapping powers to the proposed body.
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