DRAFT LOK PAL BILLS OF GOVT (VS) TEAM ANNA = JURISDICTION OF LOK PAL = SUGGESTIONS TO TEAM ANNA AND GOVT =

LOK PAL BILL

GOVT VS TEAM ANNA

Team Anna has placed an interesting Power Point presentation at www.kiranbedi.com  , giving brief comparison of the Government’s Lok Pal Bill Draft with the Jan Lok Bill Draft. 

For the sheer effort that Team Anna is taking in the matter – it needs to be saluted and supported by all people. 

There can be no doubt that India needs a strong Lok Pal, to combat the high level corruption. But, we all differ on how to make the Lok Pal strong enough to tackle the existing monumental levels of corruption.

Our Individual Perceptions are different and hence our prescriptions are bound to be slightly different. 

Let us look at a few key aspects on Jurisdictional Matters in this Post. Other matters will be dealt with, in next Post.

(i)                FIRST QN IS - WHO EXACTLY IS CORRUPT ?

It is only the Government and the Government only - which can be corrupt. Let us understand this very clearly.

It cannot be the shopwala, or the man on the street, or an NGO. They may indulge in adulteration, misuse of funds etc – but not corruption.

It is Government’s corruption only - that chokes the life of citizens. If that is curbed significantly – it does a lot of good for the citizens of India.

Our People will suffer much less. Our GDP will go up. Many private entrepreneurs will come up. India will be a much happier country to live in.

The term, Government must include whoever has state Power over citizens – from Prime minister to Panchayat officials, elected or appointed. So, there should be EFFECTIVE CHECK on all of them.

This means – we are talking of (i)Political Corruption and (ii) bureaucratic corruption both.

(ii)              Who should be the Effective Check on all of them?

If Lok Pal is given the charge of all Group A Government servants and all elected representatives – I think, his cup will be FULL. So, limiting Lok Pal’s jurisdiction to this group is both practical and sensible. Even CVC is not looking at all levels of Government servants presently.

(iii)          What about Present CVC?

Group A Government servants will get shifted from CVC to Lok Pal Jurisdiction. So, it is sensible to shift CVC also to Lok Pal Jurisdiction. Incidentally – CVC looks also at higher level officers of Banks and other PSUs. They also must come under CVC – under the Lok Pal.

CVC must be the chief Executive under Lok Pal for looking at the corruption charges against these officials presently dealt with by him.

(iv)           What about corruption at Lower levels?

There has to be EFFECTIVE CHECK on others too. Currently the CVC is not looking at less than Gr.A. These are under respective departmental Vigilance Officers.

One alternative is - Lok Pal must directly deal with Gr. A officers’ corruption, without CVC’s intervention.

CVC can directly and independently deal with Corruption cases of Grs. B, C & D – leaving irregularities not amounting to corruption to be dealt with by Departmental Vigilance systems.

(v)            The question is – why are the CVC and Vigilance Officers – not effective in curbing corruption?

If we don’t understand this – Lok Pal also will be as ineffective as CVC and Vigilance Officers.

CVC depends too much on Vigilance officers. He has no independent Investigative system to look into charges of corruption – except Vigilance Officers and CBI. CBI is used rarely. Vigilance officers system leaves much to be desired.

First, Vigilance Officers from same department /Ministry must not be heading the Vigilance System of that department and must not form the bulk of the officers in the vigilance wings. They tend to have too many friends and acquaintances among field officers -   and this familiarity itself is a negative point for combating corruption and irregularities.

Second, Only a small percentage of complaints are investigated. This implies that – most offenders get away with what they are doing.

This also implies that – Vigilance officers are free to drop complaints on persons they know / are friends with. There is too much of subjectiveness in selection of complaints for investigation.

Not all complaints go from Vigilance officers to CVC.

There are many such problem areas.

These must be taken care of, adequately – and Gr. B, C and D can be left to Vigilance system – which must come under the control of CVC – who must come under Lok Pal.

(vi)           What about NGOs,Trusts and Societies?

NGOs, Societies and Trusts belonging to ALL RELIGIONS and others must first be treated on par with companies – with compulsory Audit and declaration of Accounts. But then – Government should not differentiate this or that religion for this purpose. For them – Lok Pal is not needed. They can’t indulge in corruption.

(vii)         What about Lok Ayukta of State Governments?

This arrangement of Lok Ayuktha for state Governments must also be included in the Lok Pal Bill. It should be similar to Lok Pal. Let no Political Party escape with its Corrupt practices, by being a regional Party - simply on the ground of Federalism.

The Tahsildar’s office and the Police station are monuments of corruption in some places. But, the Party in Power is always unwilling to tackle them.

This is a Historic opportunity to introduce uniform, effective, anti-corruption systems throughout India – and should not be lost for any reason.

(viii)        Should Judiciary be under Lok Pal?

Definitely Not. Corruption in Judiciary must be looked into by an independent body consisting of Judges, Lok Pal, and CAG. The independence of Judiciary has been responsible for many reforms and should not be compromised.

Corruption in Judiciary must be looked at by not just Lok Pal, but a larger body including Judiciary itself and CAG.

(ix)          Should the Prime Minister be included under Lok Pal Jurisdiction?

Yes. But  - unless the matter directly involves corruption charge against the Prime Minister himself, with substantial proof, the PM should not himself be brought into interrogation by Lok Pal.

The office of Prime Minister must however, cooperate fully in unearthing the truth in charges against other cabinet colleagues and any others in the Ministries. This task may be delegated to Cabinet secretary. The sanctity of this highest office must be maintained – in the long term interests of the nation – unless strong corruption charges come up against the Prime Minister himself.

We will deal with other aspects –not relating to jurisdiction in future Posts. 

URLs of some earlier, closely related Posts (in this Blog) on fighting corruption are also given below :

http://wiseinvestmentideas.blogspot.com/2011/06/team-anna-hazare-ram-devji-lok-pal-goal.html

http://wiseinvestmentideas.blogspot.com/2011/06/lok-pal-bill-corruption-in-india-make.html

http://wiseinvestmentideas.blogspot.com/2011/04/building-national-consensus-on-fighting.html

http://wiseinvestmentideas.blogspot.com/2011/04/fighting-corruption-gandhian-way-fight.html

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ANNA HAZARE = JAN LOKPAL BILL = CONGRATS TO ALL = COMPOSITION OF DRAFTING COMMITTEE = EXPAND COMMITTEE = INCLUDE NRN MURTHY = INCLUDE 2 FROM OPPOSITION

EXPAND THE

Composition of

drafting committee

for LokPal Bill

=FOR ERADICATION OF CORRUPTION=

In recent past, corruption of monumental proportions rocked the country. It has gone beyond what any Richter scale can record. The scams which came to light appear to be too less compared to the scams which are under the carpet still.

People of this country very strongly feel and sense - that lot more scams are under the carpet and will never come out. There are too many people pushing it deep under the carpet.

The Government has indicated several times in recent past that Coalition Politics tie its hands in many ways. That may be, to some extent. 

But, this cannot be trotted out as reason in respect of scams engineered by ruling party men. There are no coalition compulsions there. The overall, general atmosphere in the country is full of stinking corruption. We see it in the corridors of power, in the play grounds, on the streets, in the Police stations, and in the rising prices of ONIONS !!

But, there are areas of cleanliness too. Within the Government, there are many men with clean Image. In the principle opposition party of BJP, in the left parties etc, there are men with clean Image. 

But, some Politicians in some Parties justify corruption openly and indulge in it freely. In recent past, we have seen some politicians openly supporting corruption and corrupt persons, on the basis of caste, region etc.

Corruption has spread its tentacles beyond all these considerations – and must be fought by all of us with ZERO TOLERANCE.

It is in this context that all people will welcome Government’s decision to have a 10 member committee – with 5 ministers from the Government and five members from the civil activists.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, "I am happy that government and civil society have reached an agreement to fight corruption."

The panel will now include from the side of the civil activists - (i) Anna Hazare (ii) Shanti Bhushan (iii) Prashant Bhushan, (iv) Arvind Kejriwal and (v) former Supreme Court judge Santosh Hegde.

From Government side, it will include -  (i) Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee as Chairman of the committee (ii) Law Minister Veerappa Moily (iii) Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, (iv) Home Minister P Chidambaram and (v) Water Resources Minister Salman Khurshid as members. It is heartening that these ministers command a clean Image in public mind.

Eminent men like N.R.Narayana Murthy have also, when asked, agreed to come on the Panel. This will be a good thing if he is included too – in some capacity.

In the agreement, the government has committed itself to introducing the new Lokpal Bill in the forthcoming monsoon session of Parliament. This means, there is very little time to lose.

In an earlier post, this Blog has suggested to include two eminent men from the opposition too.

Readers can see this article under the heading :” ANNA HAZARE’S ANTI-CORRUPTION DRIVE” in the URL :

http://wiseinvestmentideas.blogspot.com/2011/04/anna-hazare-jan-lok-pal-bill.html

After all, including civil activists but not including opposition members looks ODD.

Prime minister Manmohan Singh is a very pragmatic and respected person known world over for his personal, clean Image. This issue of the Lok Pal Bill is of great importance to Opposition Parties too, as they were spearheading the fight against corruption in Parliament before it came down into the  streets. It is certainly heartening that civil activists succeeded so well in this issue.

But, it is also necessary to make the passage of the final Bill in Parliament  - easy and without too many further additions and deletions – after an elaborate exercise in the Drafting committee.

If opposition is excluded from the committee – the final draft is bound to invite, and quite justifiably too,  lots of changes in Parliament, delaying its final adoption. No one can guarantee that  – what the civil activists are satisfied with in the committee  – will remain in the final Bill after elaborate discussions in Parliament.

For this reason – this Blog suggests to both the civil activists side and the Government side – to expand the committee to 14 – with 7 from the civil activists side (including men like N.R.Naranaya murthy) and 7 from Parliament (5 from Government and two from opposition). I don’t think, this number is big. This number is good. 

It takes a simple decision to expand the committee to this level within an hour.

It is needed to ensure that the draft is wholesome, acceptable to all and is effective in ensuring ZERO TOLERANCE TO CORRUPTION.

More importantly, this Bill, for once, should reflect a National Consensus, and a national mood that, for all of us, Fighting Corruption is a No.1 priority issue and that Zero tolerance to Corruption is our national Motto.

I appeal to the Government and the Civil activists to take this suggestion in earnest and ensure the final passage of the Bill wholesome and trouble free.

Yours

=Vijayamohan. V

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ANNA HAZARE = JAN LOKPAL BILL = COMPOSITION OF DRAFTING COMMITTEE = SUGGESTIONS

ANNA HAZARE’S

ANTI-CORRUPTION DRIVE

ANNA HAZARE’S Fast for an effective JAN LOKPAL BILL has elicited huge response all across India, and also from Government now.

Now, the Government has decided to set up a joint drafting committee to bring out a stricter LokPal Bill to deal with corruption.

Government has proposed that - the committee will have 10 members out of which five will be ministers and the other five will be from the civil society. Anna Hazare will also be one of the members of the proposed committee. The Government has also decided to introduce the Lokpal Bill in the monsoon session of Parliament.

The convener of drafting committee will be Law Minister Veerappa Moily.

While the stand of the Government is reasonably good – it seems that this historic committee needs to have much better representation from all concerned sections - in drafting the anti-corruption Laws.

This blog suggests to all civil activists and the Government to have more wholesome representation in the committee as below :

1.  Government   : 3 members

2.  Opposition     : 2 members

3.  Judiciary        : 2 members (Present or former SC Judges)

4.  Civil Society   : 3 members

5.  Total             : 10 members

The committee can CO-OPT more members from civil society for giving suggestions to draft the proposed legislation ; and, like in the case of many other bills, call for suggestions thereon, from  press, from states and from other interested persons.

This will obviate too much discussion on the Bill in the Parliament, too many suggestions again  and too many delays in the Parliament, without in any way affecting the rights of the Parliament.

It is also necessary that this Bill should be the Model for similar bills to be adopted at State level compulsorily.

The nomination of the LokPal must be in the jurisdiction of the Judiciary, as otherwise, the whole exercise will be futile.

Looking at the monumental proportions of corruption in India – a strong, powerful LokPal is definitely a must at the centre and in the states.

We do hope, Government and Civil activists will look at this proposal seriously and make the proposed legislation a truly land mark legislation.

Yours truly

=vijayamohan .v

=Readers may see  JUSTIFICATION for expanding the drafting committee further,  in next article at the URL :

http://wiseinvestmentideas.blogspot.com/2011/04/anna-hazare-jan-lok-pal-bill-congrats.html

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