-The Hindu Even as the debate over the inclusion of human rights activist Binayak Sen in the Planning Commission's steering committee on health still continues, the first meeting of the committee — that will guide the panel on drafting the 12 {+t} {+h} Plan — has been re-scheduled due to the non-availability of a large number of members on Wednesday. The meeting has now been fixed for June 22 as most...
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Pranab asks NCPRI to directly forward views on Lokpal Bill by Gargi Parsai
Union Finance Minister and chairman of the Lokpal Bill Joint Draft Committee (JDC) Pranab Mukherjee has invited the National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) to forward to him “directly” any suggestions/feedback on the Bill. He was responding to a letter written by Nikhil de of the NCPRI to him, seeking information on the procedures being followed by the panel and on public consultations. It is understood that in the...
More »Lokpal panel postpones sticky issues by Gargi Parsai
In its fourth meeting here, the joint draft panel on Lokpal Bill converged on half of the 40 points listed in the basic principles tabled by the civil society members, but postponed decision on contentious issues including bringing the Prime Minister and higher judiciary under the purview of the Lokpal/lokayukta.. Based on public consultations and hearings, the civil society members gave to the government, another list of “extra 31 basic principles”...
More »Govt disagrees on judicial powers of Lokpal; drafting of Bill begins by Nidhi Sharma
Sharp differences between Government representatives and civil society members in the Lokpal drafting committee came to the fore over basic issues such as the structural set-up of Lokpal, maximum punishment for corruption and graded punishment for culprits, during the fourth meeting of the panel here on Monday. However, Union Minister and panel member Kapil Sibal said that there was consensus on "almost half of the" 40 points brought to the table...
More »Members differ on Lokpal power to delegate authority by Tanu Sharma
The demand by the civil society representatives to accord power to Lokpal to delegate its ‘authority’ to individual members of the proposed 11-member body turned out to be a major sticking point in the fourth meeting of the joint drafting committee of the Bill. The meeting, which otherwise saw agreement over a host of other aspects of the proposed legislation, witnessed a long discussion on the issue of whether Lokpal should...
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