NEW DELHI, NOV 17: Three years after a Supreme Court order, the Government is ready to enact the Bill on the powers of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). The Bill is to be tabled during the winter session of Parliament. However, a strongly-worded note of dissent, written by Rajya Sabha MP Kuldip Nayar, is sure to trigger off a debate on the CVC's reduced powers.A Joint Select Committee of 30 MPs had examined the provisions of the CVC Bill and the jarring, solitary voice of dissent will rob the Government of an opportunity to have it enacted after arriving at a consensus.Nayar's six-page note makes a scathing attack on the provisions of the CVC Bill, particularly on account of the CVC being given powers of supervision and not superintendence over the CBI. In his note, addressed to Sharad Pawar, Chairman of the Joint Committee, Nayar has said that the dilution of the powers of the CVC vitiates the spirit of the December 1997 Supreme Court ruling.``The CBI has a dismal track record. It has got politicised. It has been reduced to the status of a Government department which political bosses run in the way they like.it would have been far better if the CBI had been put under the CVC,'' he has said.The MP has noted that he found the result of the meetings of the Joint Committee far from satisfactory since the subject of curbing corruption among politicians has not even been mentioned in the final report. ``It was agreed that the Committee would underline the importance of clean public life, to tell the nation that politicians do not want to be treated as a class apart and they want the corrupt among them to be dealt with severely. For some reason, the Committee brought to a limp end a historic role it could have played to curb corruption.''The CVC bosses, however, seemed reconciled to playing a supervisory instead of a statutory, constitutional role and said they were encouraged by the decision of the Union Cabinet to also expedite work on the Lok Pal Bill. Central Vigilance Commissioner N Vittal said the passage of the Bill would give the impression of a political consensus emerging on the fight against corruption. ``Since the passage of the Bill has been delayed for so long, a strong public perception had built up about the CVC not being sufficiently empowered. In my opinion, the enactment of the Bill will at least remove that perception,'' he observed.Vigilance Commissioner V N Mathur was somewhat more sceptical about the final provisions of the Bill. ``It is upto the Government to give us powers which they feel are adequate. But if the Government wants us to deal exclusively with bureaucrats and the Lokayukta with the politicians, we have no problem with that.''
