-IANS   The present version of the Lokpal bill is useless as it will cause confusion and discourage the common man from complaining against corruption, lawyer Prashant Bhushan said Thursday opposing its tabling in parliament. 'The present Lokpal bill is not drafted to deal with corruption at all. In fact, it will deter people who want to complain against corruption,' Bhushan told reporters. Bhushan is a member of the civil society group led...

-The Times of India   Team Anna on Thursday began burning copies of the government's version of the Lokpal Bill that was tabled in Parliament today. Team Anna said the symbolic protest would continue till August 16 when Gandhian Anna Hazare will go on fast to protest the exclusion of several recommendations made by civil society members on the bill. The proposed legislation introduced in the Lok Sabha doesn't cover the Prime Minister...

A controversial bill which aims to set up an anti-corruption watchdog has been introduced in the lower house of the Indian parliament. Activists have criticised the Lokpal Bill for failing to include the prime minister and senior judiciary within the remit of a new ombudsman. Activist Anna Hazare has called the bill a "cruel joke". He said he would go on hunger strike from 16 August. India has recently been hit by a...

Taking on HRD minister Kapil Sibal, Team Anna on Monday released the interim results of its 'referendum' in the minister's constituency of Chandni Chowk which showed 85% of respondents were against the government-proposed Lokpal Bill. The civil society activists question whether Sibal still represented the "aspirations of his people" since the results contradicted whatever he had been saying in joint committee meetings held earlier to draft the anti-corruption Bill. Anna and his...

-The Telegraph   Anna Hazare’s group today made public the results of a “referendum” on the Lokpal bill it had conducted in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk, the Lok Sabha constituency of minister Kapil Sibal. It claimed that 85 per cent of the respondents had favoured the provisions of Hazare’s “Jan Lokpal Bill” over that of the government’s bill. Group members construed the results as a vote on Sibal’s performance as MP from the constituency. “The...