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Team Anna meets BJP leaders
A day before the Parliamentary Standing Committee examining the Lokpal Bill would meet to finalise its recommendations, Team Anna reached the Parliament on the opening day of the Winter Session to meet BJP leaders in a last ditch attempt to persuade them to include the provisions of their Jan Lokpal Bill.
Activist Arvind Kejriwal, former IPS officer Kiran Bedi and lawyer Prashant Bhushan met Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and expressed their reservation regarding the exclusion of Citizens’ Charter and lower bureaucracy from the Bill, sources said.
The Government has already announced that it would introduce the Citizen’s Right to Grievance Redress Bill in the ongoing Session of Parliament and there are indications that only Group A and Group B officers would come under the ambit of Lokpal. Team Anna’s Jan Lokpal Bill demands that all levels of bureaucracy should be brought within the purview of the ombudsman.
The Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances and Law and Justice, headed by Congress Rajya Sabha member Abhishek Manu Singhvi, is examining the Lokpal Bill. It is set to meet finally on Wednesday and Thursday before preparing its recommendations and submitting them to the Parliament by December 1.
Team Anna requested the BJP leaders to persuade their members on the Parliamentary panel to include the provisions of the Jan Lokpal Bill. They also reminded the leaders about the “Sense of House” resolution passed by both Houses of Parliament separately before Hazare suspended his fast in August.
The resolution stated that Lokayuktas in states would be created through the same Bill and lower bureaucracy and Citizens’ Charter would be included in the Lokpal Bill.
The sources said Jaitley and Swaraj told Team Anna that they would discuss their demand within their party.
Team Anna has also sought time from the Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress and RJD. They met LJP chief and Rajya Sabha MP Ram Vilas Paswan last week. Paswan is one of the member on the Parliamentary panel on Lokpal Bill.
