Left parties demand lokpal bill draft before all party meet

Left parties on Sunday asked the Government to give them a draft of the lokpal bill before convening any all party meeting on the issue.

Left parties on Sunday asked the Government to give them a draft of the lokpal bill before convening any all party meeting on the issue.

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"It is not only the issue of whether the Prime Minister should be brought under the purview of Lokpal. There are many other aspects of the bill which we would like to study," CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said in New Delhi.

"As far as the Left parties are concerned, we would like the government to give us a draft of the bill. Only if we can study such a draft, will we be able to give our opinion and an all party meeting can be fruitful," Karat said.

Karat has spoken to the leaders of other Left parties who were also of the opinion that the Government should first come out with a draft of the bill before holding any discussion.

Yesterday, CPI national secretary D Raja had also said the entire proposed legislation should be distributed to the parties for a proper debate.

"They should give us the entire draft bill, the one they are going to bring to Parliament. How can a proper discussion take place without it?", Raja had said.

"... This is not the way to consult political parties since the government is saying that they will discuss only one issue, whether to include Prime Minister (in the ambit of Lokpal) or not," he had said.