Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today cleared the draft Lok Pal bill proposed to be introduced in the winter session of the Parliament which is being extended till Dec 29.

However, anti corruption crusader Anna Hazare and his team said the bill is not acceptable to the people and announced that Anna would resume his indefinite fast shortly.

The bill, to be introduced on Dec 27, is likely to be cleared by the Union Cabinet later this evening.

Reports said the proposed Lok Pal bill envisages that the Lok Pal would be chosen by the combination of the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The bill says that the proceedings to remove the Lok Pal can be initiated if 100 MPs seek a change.

The Lok Pal can order investigation on cases referred to it by the government only. The institution can’t order any investigation into any issue or case on its own. This means the Sue Motto facility is not there.

The investigating agency CBI will report to the Lok Pal only on those cases referred to it by the latter. This means each and every case handled by CBI can’t be reported to the Lok Pal.

The whole gamut of the bill says that whenever government asks Lok Pal to conduct investigation, it can ask the CBI to probe the particular issue. CBI will report to it on that particular issue only. Otherwise, CBI continues to work under the Ministry of Personnel.

Team Anna rejects the bill

Team Anna said that the bill is toothless and unacceptable to them. “There is no option for us except resuming the agitation,” said senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan and a key Anna aide.
“Anna will resume the indefinite fast and we will announce our plan of action,” he said. (JUBS)