New Delhi, June 20 -- Representatives of the government and civil society will meet for the last time today to take the process of drafting an effective legislation to combat corruption forward.
The meeting comes a day after both sides met to discuss the issue and find a way to end the impasse.
Both sides described yesterday's meeting as cordial but the list of disagreements remain - including the inclusion of the Prime Minister in the ambit of the Lokpal being the foremost.
Union Human Resource and Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal told mediapersons after the meeting that 80 to 85 percent consensus has been arrived between the government and the civil society activists with regard to drafting an effective Lokpal Bill.
"There was a frank exchange of views on a range of issues and there was a broad consensus. It's a major step forward and both sides feel that we should move towards consensus. The government will consult the other political parties in July over the draft," said Sibal.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who is a member of the Lokpal Bill Joint Drafting Committee, however said that two new differences have emerged after the meeting.
"The first difference is over the selection committee of Lokpal. We have proposed a broad based committee with independent and non-political individuals. The government version suggests selection committee dominated by political people and mostly from the government itself," said Bhushan.
"The second difference is that we did not agree to government's suggestion that only they can make a reference in the Supreme Court," he added.
In an earlier meeting, there was a consensus on seven of the 34 points submitted by the civil society members.
There was an agreement on empowering the Lokpal to initiate a suo motu probe into allegations of corruption against ministers, parliamentarians and senior bureaucrats.
Currently, a minister can be prosecuted only after sanction from the Prime Minister. The Lok Sabha Speaker or the Rajya Sabha Chairman has to give the nod in case of action against a Member of Parliament.
The latest version has a new clause, Clause 13-C, which gives wide powers to 'an appropriate bench of the Lokpal' to approve interception and monitoring of messages or data or voice transmitted through telephones, internet or any other medium as covered under the India Telegraph Act, read with the Information and Technology Act 2000.
Another new provision in this draft is for the setting up of a separate ''prosecution wing'' for the office of Lokpal, which is already envisaged to have powers to investigate.
The draft was circulated to government representatives during the Committee's fist meeting on April 16.
Published by HT Syndication with permission from Asian News International.
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