At a meeting here on Monday, the government strongly opposed proposals for inclusion of Prime Minister, higher judiciary and acts MPs inside Parliament under its purview.
Anna Hazare, said that he was not hopeful of the government meeting its deadline of 30th June for preparing the bill.
At the meeting held under the Chairmanship of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, contentious issues came up for discussion in the committee for the first time.
Arvind Kejriwal and Prasahant Bhushan, both civil society members of the committee, said except on one issue of keeping citizen charter and public grievances under the jurisdiction of Lokpal, the government opposed the demands for bringing the Prime Minister, higher judiciary and the corrupt acts of MPs inside Parliament under the ambit of the Lokpal.
They said the government’s proposals today were worse than what it had proposed in its first bill, which had been condemned and rejected.
Kejriwal said even the latest bill of the government had kept Prime Minister under the purview of Lokpal but the government has gone back on it.
As no agreement could be reached between them today, the government has decided to write to states and political parties to seek their opinion on these “issues of divergence” and get back to them at the next meeting on 6th June.
Sibal said there was need to take the view of the states since Lokayukts have to be appointed there.
Sibal, however, expressed confidence that the bill for a strong and effective Lokpal will be a reality.
“We must provide the country with a transparent legislation as corruption is an issue which concerns everybody. We remain committed to provide the people an effective Lokpal.”
Besides Mukherjee, those who attended the meeting from the government side were Ministers P Chidambaram (Home), Sibal (Law), Salman Khurshid (Minority Affairs) and M Veerappa Moily (Law).
From the civil society side, those present were Hazare, Shanti and Prashant Bhushan, Kejriwal and Santosh Hegde.
While the civil society members wanted the Lokpal to have powers to investigate corruption cases against the entire bureaucracy irrespective of its hierarchy, the government was of the view that it should confine to officers of Joint Secretary level and above.