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”...

Even as the government indicated after the last meeting of the Lokpal Bill joint drafting committee (JDC) that it would initiate drafting the Bill on agreed points, the National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) on Saturday raised several questions about the procedures being adopted by the panel, as well on the “official” public consultation that should take place. Discounting the lokpalbillconsultations.org website, launched by the panel's civil society members...

Within two months of constitution of the joint drafting committee on Jan Lokpal Bill, a civil society group has termed deliberations as “non-inclusive” in a clear indication of growing dissent over the working of the committee. In a similar letter written to two co-chairpersons of the committee, finance minister Pranab Mukerjee and Shanti Bhushan, who represents civil society, the National Campaign for People’s Right To Information (NCPRI) said even though the...

The Jan Lokpal is being vested with sweeping powers, which are susceptible to misuse. The centralised structure of the Lokpal will be ill-suited for sorting out governance deficit. People will be confined to being complainants and applicants. There is need to make the Jan Lokpal people-centric FOR many who quite rightly guessed that the Lokpal Bill drafted by the government would be a non-starter, the alternative merited automatic support. However, little...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday assured a delegation of Rashtriya Lok Dal leaders that government will move the crucial bill to amend the Land Acquisition Act in the coming session of Parliament, its leader Ajit Singh said. After a half-an-hour long meeting with the Prime Minister, the RLD chief said that he apprised the former about the violence over land acquisition in Noida and reminded him about his commitment to...