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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Rs. 50 lakh spent on Hazare's fast: Digvijay

Rs. 50 lakh spent on Hazare's fast: Digvijay

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published Published on Apr 17, 2011   modified Modified on Apr 17, 2011

Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh has questioned the “huge” funding for social activist Anna Hazare's hunger strike in New Delhi to demand a Lokpal Bill, and asked whether politicians were uncivilised and could not be members of civil society.

Speaking at the Press Club here on Saturday, he claimed that Rs.50 lakh was spent on Mr. Hazare's four-day agitation at Jantar Mantar. “When we demanded that it should be brought out how much money was spent for organising Mr. Hazare's hunger strike at the Jantar Mantar … and who helped it financially, we were told that Rs.82 lakh was raised from the corporate sector,” he said.

“If civil society people spent Rs.50 lakh for the four-day agitation at Jantar Mantar, then why are they after politicians, telling them to meet the expenditures for contesting the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections within a limit,” he asked.

Mr. Singh said the task of finalising the draft of the Bill could not be left to a few members of civil society. “If Anna Hazare and his associates think that whatever they decide in the name of civil society is sacrosanct, it is not acceptable.”

He wondered why only select members of civil society were included in the joint drafting committee. “Are politicians uncivilised? Can't they be members of civil society?”

Mr. Singh suggested that the committee invite representatives of all political parties to discuss the Bill and ponder over how the corporate sector and non-governmental organisations could be brought under the ambit of the Lokpal.

He said it could not be expected that the draft finalised by the civil society members would be accepted in toto. “How can anyone take away the rights of the elected representatives?”

Wrong claim, says Kejriwal

Right to information activist Arvind Kejriwal has described as wrong Digvijay Singh's claim and maintained that only Rs.32 lakh was spent on the campaign spread over the past four months.

“He [Mr. Singh] is wrong actually. You can see the figures. We have put them in the public domain. You will see a figure total of Rs.82 lakh, and a total of …Rs. 32 lakh has been spent in the past four months. It is not just at the Jantar Mantar [where Mr. Hazare staged the agitation],” he said on Sunday.

“There was this Ramlila Ground thing also. It has been spent on a couple of places. It includes Rs.6 lakh-Rs.7 lakh spent in Mumbai. Mumbai accounts were also included in this. It includes not just Jantar Mantar but also the preparations in between,” he said. — PTI

The Hindu, 18 April, 2011, http://www.hindu.com/2011/04/18/stories/2011041863401200.htm


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