New Delhi: The much-awaited final draft on the Lokpal Bill, prepared by the Parliamentary Standing Committee, is slated to be tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Friday.
The draft recommends that Group C and D bureaucrats should be under State Lokayuktas and at the Central level under the Chief Vigilance Commissioner.
It also recommends that the control of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) be outside the Lokpal. Notably, the central probe agency had registered an objection to its inclusion on Wednesday.
The draft further says that the question of including the Prime Minister under the purview of Lokpal should be left to Parliament.
However, the report was not adopted unanimously. There were 16 dissensions among 30 members of the committee. Three dissensions moved by Congress MPs led by Rahul Gandhi's aide asked for Group C, the lower bureaucracy, to come under the Lokpal's ambit.
Team Anna differed with the committee's report on all three recommendations. And with the team threatening to launch another agitation, if bill doesn't match their demands, it could be a rough road ahead for the government.
Reacting to the recommendations of the draft, Team Anna had said that they would not have any impact on corruption and would instead dismantle the existing anti-graft mechanism.
"I think the recommendations of the (Parliamentary) Standing Committee, whatever they are, the Lokpal which is coming, I don't think this will have any impact on corruption. On the contrary, it is likely to dismantle whatever exists in the name of anti-corruption in this country," activist Arvind Kejriwal had said.
However, Parliament Standing Committee Chairman Abhishek Manu Singhvi had said that more could be added to the draft once it was tabled, adding that the panel was not working for please Team Anna or any individual for that matter.
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