Team Anna met the members of the Standing Committee of Parliament headed by Abhishek Singvi on Friday to discuss the Jan Lokpal Bill and pressed for as many as 34 fresh additions to the proposed Lokpal Bill that have already been incorporated in the Uttarakhand Lokayukata Bill. They renewed their demand that constitutional amendments bringing violation of citizens' charter and conduct of legislators in Parliament within the purview of the Lokpal also be introduced.
A Parliamentary Standing Committee has pulled up the government for mere lip service to the recommendations of the Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee it had itself constituted in 2005 to study the status of Muslims in India.
Activist Aruna Roy on Thursday night questioned political parties for raising objections to the provision of setting up of Lokayuktas in the Lokpal Bill, saying they did not oppose such a move earlier.
Gandhi said the BJP had actually committed itself to supporting Constitutional status to Lokpal in the Standing Committee deliberations.
But, govt plans to bring some provisions that can't wait.
Ahead of his day-long fast for a strong Lokpal Bill, Anna Hazare launched a vitriolic attack on the government, charging that it was "intoxicated" by power and said the "second fight for independence" has started which will go on till corruption is eradicated.
Activist Anna Hazare on Saturday blamed Rahul Gandhi for encouraging Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, chairman of the Standing Committee of Law and Justice, Public Grievances and Personnel, for overlooking the letter written by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
A Parliamentary committee scrutinising the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) Bill will recommend raising of the annual income tax exemption limit to Rs 3 lakh.
Crucial financial sector reforms are again stuck, despite Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's appealing to political parties to help pass the legislations in this regard.
Abhishek Manu Singvi, chairman of 30-member Standing Committee of Parliament, on Wednesday adopted the Lokpal draft for consideration and approval by the union cabinet before it is tabled in both houses in the form of an anti-corruption bill.
Rejecting the recommendations of the parliamentary panel on Lokpal Bill, Team Anna on Wednesday claimed that they will not have any impact on corruption and will instead dismantle the existing anti-graft mechanism.
The Bharatiya Janata Party will on Thursday submit a note of dissent on the draft Lokpal bill to Abhishek Singhvi, chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee going into the Lokpal Bill.
Confusion prevailed over Anna Hazare's protest plans on Monday with a prominent Municipal Corporation of Delhi functionary saying that the civic body has not given permission for the agitation at Ramlila Maidan even as Team Anna insisted that they have got the nod.
Suggests far more generous provisions than proposed in Direct Taxes Code
Suggests far more generous provisions than proposed in Direct Taxes Code
The Central Vigilance Commission will suggest to the Parliamentary Standing Committee certain changes in the proposed Lokpal bill and pitch for greater powers to prosecute higher bureaucracy in corruption-related cases.
There is a vertical split in the proscribed outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam with its hardliner faction led by fugitive commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah forming a new 'central committee' by dropping its eight top leaders including its Chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, who is now engaged in peace talks with the government.
Dismissing suggestions that Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's idea of giving constitutional status to Lokpal Bill was a delaying tactic by the Congress, the ruling party made it clear that it was for the collective wisdom of the Standing Committee and Parliament to accept the proposal.
Turning down the suggestion of Parliamentary Standing Committee, the Union Cabinet also decided that there would be no guarantee of assured returns on schemes by pension funds.
Consensus eluded the Parliamentary panel on Lokpal on the issue of including the prime minister within the ambit of the ombudsman with a majority opposing the suggestion, saying it could lead to complications while some others favoured it with riders.
Aruna Roy, prominent member of civil society, chairman of the National Campaign for People's Right to Information, and an alternative voice in the ongoing debate on the Lokpal Bill, speaks to Rediff.com
The three service chiefs are unlikely to be called before Parliament's standing committee on defence to give an account of the state of preparedness of the forces. This has become clear with sources in the committee and outside saying that the move has been given up as it would unnecessarily send a wrong signal at a time when the talk of a trust deficit between government and defence forces is being raked up.
the government will introduce some of its key provisions, such as General Anti-Avoidance Rules, in Budget 2012-13.
Pakistan's former fast bowler, Shoaib Akhtar has cautioned against inviting any foreign teams to Pakistan in the prevailing security situation in the country. Speaking two days after the terrorist attack on the police training centre in Quetta in which 62 police cadets and two armymen were killed and around 170 injured, Akhtar said that the security situation in the country was not good. "Until there is a complete normalcy as far as security situation is concerned we shouldn't take the risk of inviting any foreign team to Pakistan," he said on Geo News channel.
As chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on finance, former finance minister, Yashwant Sinha, says he is committed to expediting the legislative work associated with important Bills, including the direct taxes code (DTC) and Goods and Servies Tax.
Chairman of the Standing Committee on Lokpal Abhishek Singhvi on Thursday refused to set a deadline for finalising its crucial report but insisted that the panel was working on the issue with unparallel swiftness.
'The government must provide more funds to enable the armed forces to fight and win tomorrow's wars,' states Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
In an apparent dig at Anna Hazare's campaign for Jan Lokpal Bill, National Advisory Council member Aruna Roy on Monday said one has the right to dissent in a democracy but not to overrule the functioning of Parliament and its multifarious structures.
Unhappy with the ultimatum set by Anna Hazare on the Jan Lokpal issue, a senior minister on Wednesday said the government is committed to bring a "strong and effective" Lokpal bill to deal with corruption but made it clear that this cannot be done by "putting a pistol on someone's neck".
Following is the text of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remarks at the all party meeting on the Lokpal issue in New Delhi on Wednesday evening.
The Lokpal Bill is set to be put on the fast-track with the Parliamentary panel on Law taking it for examination from Friday by hearing views of Aruna Roy and Jaiprakash Narayan who have presented their own drafts.
As Parliamentary Standing Committee went back on some of its recommendations on Lokpal Bill, Team Anna member Kiran Bedi on Thursday night slammed it as an effort to make the ombdusman an "enquiry-pal" and said it confirms her remarks that politicians wear several masks.
Kejriwal spoke exclusively to rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt and was making his final position clear. Before the third round of agitation against corruption begins in the last week of December read the logic and passion behind it in this the first of a two-part series.
The Central Vigilance Commission on Saturday indicated it did not want to come under Lokpal but work closely with the proposed anti-corruption ombudsman.
Under attack for his comments on Anna Hazare, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari on Wednesday opted out of the Parliamentary Standing Committee going into the Lokpal issue even as Bharatiya Janata Party inducted two new members in the panel being reconstituted after its term ended today.
'Unlike the Chinese army that has been largely a peace time force, the Indian Army is a battle hardened force,' explains Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Government on Friday ruled out replacing its Lokpal Bill with another, saying it will be better to have amendments to the one already introduced.
The new army chief's highest priority must be to address the critical hollowness in the Indian Army's operational preparedness, says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
Admitting that the government was in a "bind" from which it has to come out, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday night said that "practical and pragmatic" solutions have to be found to the Lokpal issue.
The all-party meeting convened by the government has seen some interesting position being adopted by political parities on the issue of the Jan Lokpal bill with nine parties asking the government to trash its bill, which is with the standing committee. However, there are no takers for Anna Hazare's Jan Lokpal bill either.
