Annas appeal to Union Cabinet

The Union Cabinet is most likely to discuss tommorow the contents of Lokpal Bill, which should be presented in the forthcoming session of Parliament. In its present form, Governments version of Lokpal Bill falls far short of the expectations of the people. It is too weak and ineffective. It has a very narrow jurisdiction. There is nothing for a common man in the present version of Governments Lokpal Bill. Common mans corruption has been completely left out of Lokpal Bill. For instance, in government schools in villages, teachers rarely turn up. They collect their monthly salaries and pay a part of it to Basic Shiksha Adhikari for marking false attendance. Medicines are diverted to the black market before they reach government hospitals. Poor people are turned away when they go to hospitals. There is endless corruption in the work done by various panchayats. Rations meant for people living in extreme poverty are diverted to the black market. None of this corruption faced by a common man in his day to day life is covered under governments draft of the Lokpal Bill, questioned Arvind Kejriwal. "Karnataka Lokayukta released the PDS scam report yesterday indicating a monthly loss of Rs 146 crores and mining scam involving the top politicians including the Chief Minister. However, those accused in the report are precisely the people who would be expected to decide whether to take actions against themselves. Unfortunately, the government's version of Lokpal Bill fails to rectify this serious anomaly," says Prashant Bhushan. The government claims that it first wants to tackle high-level corruption. However, none of the large scams of recent times like the Adarsh Housing scam, the Commonwealth Games scam, the Reddy brothers scam, mining scam, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha scam, Cash for vote scam, fodder scam, Taj corridor scam none of these scams are covered by governments Lokpal. So, what is covered under Governments Lokpal? Said Bhushan It is a rare opportunity for UPA government to change the history of India. If they present a strong Lokpal Bill, the whole country would be indebted to them. We sincerely appeal to the Union Cabinet to present a strong Lokpal Bill in Parliament, appealed Anna Hazare. "If the government presents a Bill which has right structures and strong foundation, but even if we have a few differences with them, the Parliament will be able to rectify those anomalies. In that case, we will be able to appeal to the Standing committee of the Parliament. However, if the government presents a Bill with faulty structures, then even the Standing Committee will not be able to do much. Parliament and the Standing Committee have their limitations. The Standing Committee may negate a law or it may suggest some amendments, but the standing committee does not have the jurisdiction to rewrite a law. It cannot completely replace a law. It cannot change the basic structure of a law," Said kejriwal

So, if the government presents a law whose basic structure is bad, we will be left with no option but to sit on an indefinite fast to demand that the government should withdraw this law and present a better law in Parliament. Some of the issues affecting basic structure are like Whether this Bill will set up only Lokpal at the centre or will it set up Lokayuktas also at state level through the same Bill? What would be the structure of Lokpal? Would it be an 11 member body with all powers concentrated in the 11 members or would these 11 members have powers to delegate powers and functions? Would it have jurisdiction over entire bureaucracy or only a small set of senior officers? Would CBIs anti-corruption branch be merged into Lokpal?

On many such issues of basic structure, there are differences between the government and civil society draft. People all across the country are overwhelmingly expressing their support in favor of the provisions of civil societys draft. All sample surveys done by various media houses indicate that. The survey done by activists in Mumbai showed that almost 95% people voted in favor of civil society draft. There are already referendums going on in Delhi, Nagpur and Bangalore in various constituencies. Here too, the initial indications are that the people have voted overwhelmingly in favor of civil society draft. We hope that UPA Government would rise to the occasion and accede to the wishes of the people to enact a strong Lokpal Bill. Congress claims Congress ka haath, aam admi ke saath. We sincerely hope that aam admis corruption will also be addressed through Lokpal Bill.