House lokpal draft empty tin box: Team Anna

Team Anna today described the Parliamentary standing committee draft on Lokpal Bill as an “empty tin box with no powers” and expressed surprise at exclusion of citizen’s charter and lower bureaucracy from the proposed anti-corruption ombudsman. HT reports.

Team Anna on Monday described the Parliamentary standing committee draft on lokpal bill as an "empty tin box with no powers" and expressed surprise at exclusion of citizen's charter and lower bureaucracy from the proposed anti-corruption ombudsman.

"The government proposes to remove CBI, judiciary, citizen charter, whistle blower protection, Group C and Group D employees and CBI from lokpal jurisdiction. It would reduce lokpal to an empty tin box with no powers and functions," a statement by Team Anna said.

It also accused the government of going back on the resolution passed in Parliament, which led social activist Anna Hazare to suspend his fast in August.

"The resolution (adopted by both houses of Parliament) clearly stated that three issues would be addressed through the lokpal bill namely lokayuktas in states would be created through the same bill and lower bureaucracy and citizens charter would be included in the lokpal bill," the statement read.

Expressing concern over reports about the standing committee deliberations, Team Anna said the government proposes to have an ineffective bill to deal with citizen's grievances.

Team Anna believes not including Group C and D employees under the lokpal will mean that the lower level corruption will not be dealt by any agency. "Lakhs of people participated in this anti-corruption movement wanting a solution to this ....," they said.

On the proposal to keep the CBI out of lokpal, Team Anna said the standing committee's proposal would reduce lokpal to a mere post office — receive complaints, forward it to CBI, receive CBI's report and present it before the court.

They also demanded that criminal investigation of judges — left out of Judicial Accountability Bill — should be included in the lokpal bill.