Break lokpal into 5 institutions: Roy

Even as the government and Anna Hazare’s team continue a bitter battle over the lokpal bill, social activist Aruna Roy and her colleagues have suggested turning the proposed anti-corruption watchdog into five different institutions for its effective functioning. Nagendar Sharma reports.

Even as the government and Anna Hazare’s team continue a bitter battle over the lokpal bill, social activist Aruna Roy and her colleagues have suggested turning the proposed anti-corruption watchdog into five different institutions for its effective functioning.

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Roy, a member of Sonia Gandhi’s National Advisory Council (NAC), has said there was a need for an approach different than the “government’s Lokpal bill and the Jan Lokpal bill (Hazare team’s draft).”

She and her colleagues at the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) have evolved the mechanism following consultations with the public at various forums.

“The consensus emerged that in place of a single institution there should be multiple institutions and that a basket of collective and concurrent Lokpal anti corruption and grievance redress measures should be evolved,” Roy said.

“Vesting jurisdiction over the length and breadth of the government machinery in one institution will concentrate too much power in the institution, while the volume of work will make it difficult to carry out its tasks,” she said.

The NCPRI has supported bringing the Prime Minister within the ambit of the Lokpal, but has suggested a separate independent authority to probe the allegations against judges.

It also has recommended an amendment in the Central Vigilance Commission Act to allow it to probe complaints against central government employees without seeking any permission from their authorities.

The NCPRI said it has gone public with its views as the government had already introduced its bill in Parliament.