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Ministers burn midnight oil to fine-tune Lokpal Bill draft
Anita Katyal & R Sedhuraman
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 18
The government was firm tonight against bringing the investigation wing of the CBI under the Lokpal even as a group of senior ministers, including Pranab Mukherjee and P Chidambaram, were still fine-tuning the final draft of the Bill for its introduction in Parliament in the ongoing winter session, which concludes on December 22.

The government had hoped to place the draft Bill before an emergency meeting of the Union Cabinet tonight along with the Food Security Bill, but decided to defer it till tomorrow as some issues need to be ironed out, official sources said.

The ministers grappling with finalising of the draft, however, agreed on bringing of the appointment of the CBI director under a panel comprising the Prime Minister, Home Minister and the leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha on the lines of the appointment of the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC). This would ensure impartiality and independent functioning of the CBI, they felt.

Anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare and his team have demanded that the investigation wing of the CBI should be brought under the Lokpal. Falling somewhat short of this, the government is ready to give the Lokpal the power to supervise CBI’s investigations in corruption cases.

Under the provisions of the draft Bill, appointments to the Lokpal would be made only after vigilance clearance by the CVC.

Further, the Lokpal would be covered under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, sources said.

The government has also agreed to bring the office of the Prime Minister under the purview of the Lokpal, but with several safeguards under which complaints would be entertained only with the consent of three-fourths of the members of the anti-corruption body.

The PM’s dealings in matters relating to national security would be out of Lokpal’s purview, while the body’s proceedings in other matters would be held in-camera.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asserted yesterday that the government was burning the midnight oil to finalise the Bill and have it passed in the winter session. The PM’s assurance had come soon after Hazare had threatened to go ahead with his ‘jail bharo’ agitation from December 27 if the government failed to meet the deadline for putting in place a strong Lokpal.

Among other ministers involved in giving the final touches to the draft Bill were Law Minister Salman Khurshid and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and MoS in the PMO, V Narayanaswamy.

The ministerial team had gone into a huddle even as Team Anna stepped up its pressure on the government. Addressing a gathering in Chennai, Hazare asked his supporters to be prepared for courting arrest as the government had fooled the people time and again on the Jan Lokpal.

Sources said Hazare had cancelled his tomorrow’s engagements that were finalised earlier. He would instead be in Delhi and witness the Lok Sabha proceedings relating to the Lokpal Bill from the visitors’ gallery.