Opinion of various ministries sought on Lokpal Bill

New Delhi, Jan 14 (PTI) Amidst its keenness to tackle themenace of corruption in an expeditious manner, the LawMinistry has sought opinion of various ministries on theproposed Lokpal Bill that is expected to cover even the PrimeMinister.

"There is absolute clarity. (There is) no confusion," LawMinister M Veerappa Moily told reporters here when asked aboutthe fate of the Lokpal Bill and whether there were differenceson the issue of bringing the Prime Minister under its ambit.

He said the draft legislation has been circulated tovarious ministries to elicit their opinion.

However, he did not speak further on the issue saying itwas now under the consideration of the Group of Ministersrecently set up to consider various administrative andlegislative measures to deal with corruption in high places.

While underlining the government''s keenness to tacklethe problem of corruption, Moily said Chief Justice of India SH Kapadia has recently written to the Chief Justices of allthe High Courts to fast-track such cases.

The government recently demonstrated its seriousness totake steps against corruption when it formed the GoM.

The terms of reference include relinquishing ofdiscretionary powers enjoyed by the union ministers, Statefunding of elections, ensuring full transparency in publicprocurement and contracts and enunciation of a new publicprocurement policy and introduction of open and competitivesystem of exploiting natural resources.