13 years ago
Rajya Sabha passes motion to send Lokpal Bill to select panel
15-member Select Committee may submit report by first day of last week of Monsoon Session: MoS for Personnel V Narayanasamy.
Lokpal Bill in Rajya Sabha again; BJP objects to motion to send bill to select committeeThe anti-corruption Lokpal Bill is unlikely to be passed in the Budget session of Parliament, which ends tomorrow. But the Lokpal storm continues, with the rulebook being waved by both Opposition and Treasury benches, tempers high.
Samajwadi Party leader Mayawati said:
- The Samajwadi Party cannot move motion for select committee.
- Minister should have tabled the motion.
- Please do not put your weakness on other parties.
CPI (M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said:
- Without a motion you are talking of an amendment. Let minister move a motion for select committee; we may agree or disagree.
- If the government wants a select committee, we have no objection.
- No motion made for setting up of select committee - where is it?
Does the govt want a Lokpal or not? We don't want games, says JaitleyThe Bharatiya Janata Party's Arun Jaitley said:
- There are four basic points of difference: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), removal of Lokpal, who all is covered under the purview of Lokpal, and whether states should follow their own process.
- Does the government want a Lokpal or not? We don't want games.
- The government had said yesterday that there will be an amendment - Lokayukta will only be a model law and will be subject to being passed by states.
- But to introduce this amendment, two state legislatures need to have passed this.
- Without resolution of two states, this amendment cannot even be considered by Parliament.
The BJP challenged the move. Much argument ensued as each side quoted rule after rule of House proceedings.
The Samajwadi Party's Naresh Aggarwal immediately stood up and moved an amendment to the motion that the Bill be sent to a 15-member select committee of the House - he suggested 15 names - which would present its report to the House within three months.
- The Lokpal Bill came up in the Rajya Sabha on Monday evening, with Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office (Pension, Personnel and Public Grievances) V Narayanasamy, standing up to complete what he could not on December 29, the last day of an extended winter session.
- He said differences on various provisions had narrowed and several issues raised had been addressed. He then asked the House to pass the Bill. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is a member of the Upper House, was present in House.
The anti-corruption Lokpal Bill will not be passed in the Budget session of Parliament, which ends tomorrow. Sources say that the government and the Opposition have not arrived at any consensus on amendments to the draft Bill by the Government, and that the bill will now be sent to a select committee.
Five amendments were proposed by the government, which held talks today with the BJP and the Left parties. But differences over the role of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and on the creation of Lokayuktas still exist.
