New Delhi:
The parliamentary panel looking into the Lokpal Bill today arrived at a "broad consensus" on making the body a constitutional authority. Towards that end, an agreement was also reached for the need for a constitutional amendment to effect the process.
The Standing Committee on Personnel and Law and Justice, which is scrutinising the Billl, which will serve as an ombudsman to check corruption among public servants, is expected to circulate a draft report of the recommendations to the members in the next few days. Significantly, the unanimity to accord the institution of Lokpal a constitutional status had earlier been mooted by Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi in Parliament as one of the proposals over the anti-graft bill.
Consensus, though, still eluded the inclusion of the Prime Minister under the ambit of the Bill - a key demand of anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare and his associates.
Mr Hazare and his colleagues - popularly known as Team Anna - are keenly watching the Winter Session of Parliament in which the government had promised to introduce a strong and effective Lokpal Bill. They had, in fact, met senior leaders of various political parties yesterday in Parliament to lobby for the support for the inclusion of the lower bureaucracy, judiciary and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) - other crucial demands - under the purview of the proposed Lokpal.
(Read: Team Anna meets BJP leaders)The 74-year-old Gandhian has threatened to intensify his agitation and campaign against the Congress in the upcoming Assembly polls in five states next year if the Centre fails to pass the Bill in this session of the Parliament.