Right to information body demands inclusion of other bills in Jan Lokpal

According to NCPRI member Nikhil Dey,the government and the Opposition were delaying the bill by blaming each other for lack of support. “We have met Rahul Gandhi,Sonia Gandhi and Arun Jaitley. They have all told us that there is no opposition to the Bill (within the party),” Dey said.

Dey said instead of “burdening the Lokpal” with complaints,the grievance redressal system should be put in place to address people’s complaints.

Another member,Shekhar Singh,said Lokpal’s structure of accountability should not consist of a single agency but “a basket of measures” which includes the other three laws also pending before the House.

“It is important to take a holistic view for citizen-centric measure,” he said,adding that the body would rather not have the current bill passed,which they claimed had “several deficiencies”.

The organisation has also recommended that to stop the Lokpal from becoming an all-encompassing entity,it should be kept under the oversight of a multi-party parliamentary committee. There should also be an option where the Lokpal can call in “any investigative agency besides the CBI”,the body recommended.

Singh said because the House was not getting enough time to debate the bills,“other important bills should not be allowed to fall by the wayside”.