Civil Society improved Lokpal Bill draft: Salman Khurshid

New Delhi, Jun 18: Salman Khurshid, the Union Water Resources Minister, on Jun 17 while admitting the discussions with the civil society in the joint committee had improved the provisions of the Lokpal Bill, said that any further demands from the them would have to be considered by the Parliament and not the government.

Speaking at the Idea Exchange, an interaction with journalists at The Indian Express, the Union Minister said, “Because the Lokpal Bill would be a property of the Parliament at that time. If Anna Hazare says he is going on fast again (from August 16), he will not be saying it to the government then. He will be saying that to Indian Parliament. And if the Parliament feels that Anna Hazare should get what he is asking, Parliament will do it. No problem."

The Congress leader added, “What we are saying to them is that we are only doing what we feel convinced about and what we think will carry conviction with the Parliament. If you can convince Parliament to do more, please do it. We are not stopping you."

Khurshid, who is also in the panel to draft the Lokpal bill, admitted that at the present state the Bill was “vastly superior" to the one that the government had originally drafted last year. He credited the Civil Society group for this improvement and said, “If you look at our Bill, the Bill that we had drafted, and look at this Bill, this is a far better, superior Bill. Let us give credit (to the civil society) that this draft has come out of a collaborative effort between them and us. Our Bill would not have been as good as this."

It can be recollected that while the government has agreed to most demands from the civil society, it is still reluctant about the inclusion of the Prime Minister under the ambit of the Jan Lokpal.

OneIndia News