The meeting of the Congress Core Group was held at a time when government is scrambling for numbers to pass the Lokpal Bill in Rajya Sabha with Trinamool Congress insisting that it will move amendments to delete the provision for setting up Lokayuktas at the state level.
The Delhi Cabinet on Monday cleared the draft of the much talked-about Jan Lokpal bill which provides for covering all public servants -- from chief minister to Group D employees -- and seeks life term as maximum punishment for those found guilty of corruption.
The government on Thursday amended the controversial Lokpal Bill, de-inking it from the setting up of Lokayuktas in the states and transferring powers of sanction of prosecution against public servant to the ombudsman. The Union Cabinet accepted 14 of the 16 recommendations made by the Rajya Sabha Select Committee, which was set up in May last year amid sharp differences among political parties, because of which the legislation has been stuck in the Upper House.
The much-debated Lokpal Bill, which seeks to create an anti-corruption watchdog, is likely to come up for discussion and passage in the Rajya Sabha next week.
The Aam Aadmi Party government's plans to enact the Jan Lokpal Bill in a public venue next week faced fresh hurdles with Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran insisting that Lt Governor's prior approval is necessary while key ally Congress toughened its opposition.
Lt Governor Najib Jung had sought Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran's as to whether the introduction of the Jan Lokpal Bill in the assembly without sending the legislative proposal to the Central government is in consonance with the transaction of Business of the GNCT of Delhi Rules, 1993, and also as to whether the proposal involves any constitutional infraction.
On the eve of consideration of Lokpal Bill by the Rajya Sabha, Trinamool Congress on Wednesday mounted difficulties on the government by giving notice for amendment to the crucial legislation in which it wants references to formation of Lokayuktas to be dropped.
Hazare, 81, had started his indefinite fast on January 30 over appointment of anti-corruption watchdogs.
The stalemate over the appointment continues as UP CM Akhilesh Yadav recommends same name to Ram Naik for the fourth time in 20 days.
Anna Hazare, fasting for the last five days for passage of Lokpal Bill, on Saturday said he was happy with the amended legislation presented in the Rajya Sabha and would call off his hunger strike the moment the law is enacted.
Opposing the United Progressive Alliance government's Lokpal Bill, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley on Thursday said we do not want a weak and hollow law.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday questioned the Centre's decision of sending two drafts of Lokpal Bill for consideration and demanded that the government be clear before seeking states' views on the proposed legislation.
The letters by Hazare and Gandhi were released by the All India Congress Committee on Tuesday, on a day the Bill was slated to come up for consideration and passage in the Rajya Sabha.
'The CBI and its independence was discussed in great detail. We invited and sought the views of the CBI director as well as several government officials. But the ingenious solution to the problem came from within the committee. The effort was to somehow find a solution. It would not have been possible to draft this Bill if members had not been liberal in their views and if they had not been prepared to rid themselves of their political bias.' Congress MP Satyavrat Chaturvedi, who headed the Parliamentary committee which proposed the recommendations for the Lokpal Bill, speaks to Anita Katyal in an exclusive interview.
The Delhi cabinet on Friday decided to call a special session of the assembly to take up the Jan Lokpal Bill that seeks to punish corrupt officials on February 16 at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium instead of the historic Ramlila ground as announced by ruling Aam Aadmi Party earlier.
The Foundation for Democratic Reforms and Lok Satta, along with some organisations will arrange a round table conference in New Delhi on April 24. The conference is for a consensus on the creation of a powerful and independent Lok Pal at the national level and Lokayuktas in states.
Stepping up the attack on the ruling AAP over the 2015 Delhi Janlokpal Bill, ousted party leader Prashant Bhushan on Sunday said that the proposed legislation is "completely" different from its previous 2014 version.
Anna Hazare on Tuesday began his indefinite fast at his village in Maharashtra to press for immediate passage of Jan Lokpal Bill in Parliament even as Government said it was serious about getting the anti-graft measure passed in the current session itself.
Softening his stand on the Lokpal issue, Anna Hazare on Saturday suggested moving ahead with the amended Bill presented in the Rajya Sabha and said improvements in the legislation could be brought through amendments later.
Will the new Congress government implement the five 'guarantees' that helped it in part to wrest power from the Bharatiya Janata Party in toto or will they now add a "conditions apply" clause?
In his letter to the prime minister, Hazare said he would continue the campaign in the capital till the Lokayukta is not appointed and the Swaminathan Commission Report is not implemented.
Seeking to give a big push to the Lokpal Bill, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday appealed to all political parties to support the legislation saying it is a "very very powerful instrument" in the fight against corruption.
Sharpening his attack on Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi today said the Bharatiya Janata Party leader would have "ousted" even Atal Bihari Vajpayee like party veterans Jaswant Singh and L K Advani had the former PM continued being in public life.
The MES and some political outfits in Maharashtra have been pressing for this demand on the ground that the district and a few other neighbouring areas of Karnataka have a substantial Marathi speaking population.
Days ahead of the retirement of present Central Bureau of Investigation chief, government introduced a bill in Lok Sabha to include the leader of the largest opposition party in the panel to select the head of the agency in the absence of a recognised Leader of the Opposition in the House.
While the Congress alleged that the Vidhana Soudha has become a shopping mall and the BJP stood for 'Broker Janata Party', Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai reminded the opposition how Rs 25 lakh cash was allegedly seized from the staff of Congress MLA from Chamarajanagar C Puttarangashetty four years ago.
Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan on Tuesday said the Narendra Modi-led Gujarat government stands 'exposed' after it compiled a proposal to amend the state's Lokayukta Commission Bill to leave the Lokayukta powerless, extracting all prosecutorial powers from the position.
Calling the political condition prevailing in West Bengal "horrible and frightening", Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar alleged on Tuesday that the people of the state do not have the freedom to exercise their franchise fearlessly.
Anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare on Thursday questioned Narendra Modi as a prime ministerial candidate in the next general elections saying the Gujarat chief minister was not sincere about rooting out corruption as he has not taken steps for setting up a Lokayukta, a post lying vacant since 2003 in the state.
A Parliamentary panel examining the Lokpal bill may recommend that the proposed anti-corruption watchdog be a single window stop for probing all corruption complaints against government functionaries by ending multiplicity of investigating agencies to investigate graft cases.
Former Karnataka Lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde on Wednesday suggested that corporates and NGOs should also be brought under the purview of the Jan Lokpal bill.
In an apparent show of unanimity, the report of the Select Committee on Lokpal Bill, which has recommended delinking creation of Lokayuktas in states from the central bill, is scheduled to be tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Friday by Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party.
In an interview with Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde, one of the members of the Joint Drafting Committee if the Lokpal Bill, sets the record straight on why the talks broke down.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee going into the Lokpal Bill has recommended keeping the judiciary and the MPs' conduct in the House out of its purview and rejected the demand for hiving off the anti-corruption wing of the Central Bureau of Investigation to come under its jurisdiction.
Bharatiya Janata Party's PM candidate Narendra Modi on Sunday targeted Rahul Gandhi yet again, saying while nothing is being done to check price rise and corruption, the Congress leader has been only coming out with "akashwani" (celestial voices).
The case of Gujaratis also the eye-opener for all Indians, who are agitating for the Lokpal bill.
He said though there was a "ray of hope", certain issues he had flagged remained unresolved.
As the government prepared to table the Lokpal Bill in the Rajya Sabha, its key partner Trinamool Congress on Wednesday indicated that it could act difficult as it had objections to the provision on setting up of Lokayuktas in states
A day after asking Anna Hazare not to fast from August 16 if a strong anti-corruption bill is not prepared, Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde, a Lokpal Bill drafting committee member, on Sunday expressed solidarity with him saying that they had no differences.
The leader of the largest opposition party in Lok Sabha will be included in a panel to select the chairperson and members of Lokpal under the amended law, governing the functioning of the anti-corruption body, approved by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday.
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