Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Lokpal Bill drafting Committee pledges to expedite finalisation of Bill by June 30

The government and the civil society activists, who are members of the drafting committee of a Lokpal Bill today pledged to expedite the process to finalise the bill by 30th of next month. Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, who is the member of the Drafting Committee, told reporters after the meeting that the civil society members on the committee presented a document with respect to the objects of the Bill which enunciated the general principles underlining the bill. He said there was no difference of opinion during the meeting and talks were very good.

Mr. Sibal explained that civil society members and the government will think about the proposals given by the two sides and discuss them again in the next meeting on Saturday. Both sides agreed to reflect on the documents as well as suggestions made in the meeting. Mr. Sibal asserted that everything is going as per plan and the objective is to have a strong Lokpal bill to fight the malaise of corruption.

Civil society members in the Committee Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan spoke on similar lines. Mr. Prashant Bhushan said, in today's meeting objectives and principles of draft Lokpal Bill were discussed keeping in view the provisions of United Nations convention against terrorism.

AIR correspondent reports that in the first meeting of the drafting committee the two sides exchanged the documents of Lokpal and Jana Lokpal drafts to reflect on each others' points of view.

In a related development, Delhi High Court today dismissed a plea seeking removal of social activist Anna Hazare from the Lokpal Bill Committee. 


Courtesy : The Hindu

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