Panel to draft anti-graft law to meet tomorrow

New Delhi, May 1 (PTI) Five Union ministers and social
activist Anna Hazare's representatives will meet here on
Monday to take forward the process to draft an effective
legislation to combat corruption.
Civil society members held rallies in several cities
today in support of a strong anti-corruption law as the Union
ministers went through minute details of various versions of
the draft Janlokpal Bill prepared by Hazare's team.
Top officials of the Law Ministry, who have gone through
the Jan Lokpal Bill, made a presentation on salient features
of the legislation before the Union ministers at a meeting
here.
The meeting was called by Finance Minister Pranab
Mukherjee, the Chairman of the Joint Drafting Committee (JDC).
At the first meeting of the JDC on April 16, both the
sides had agreed to go through various drafts of the Lokpal
bill submitted by other organisations.
Mukherjee discussed with his ministerial colleagues finer
details of the Jan Lokpal Bill which, among other things,
envisages a provision empowering the office of the Lokpal to
intercept telephone conversations.
The second meeting comes in the backdrop of differences
on the inclusion of judiciary in the anti-graft legislation.
At a round-table organised recently, two former Chief
Justices of India -- J S Verma and M N Venkatachalaiah -- had
opposed inclusion of judges of the Supreme Court and High
Courts in the proposed legislation.
The latest version has a new clause, Clause 13-C, which
gives wide powers to "an appropriate bench of the Lokpal to
approve interception and monitoring of messages or data or
voice transmitted through telephones, internet or any other
medium as covered under the India Telegraph Act, read with
Information and Technology Act 2000."
The power to intercept telephonic conversations is, at
present, vested with the Home Ministry.
Another new provision in the draft is for setting up a
separate "prosecution wing" for the office of Lokpal which is
already envisaged to have powers to investigate.
The draft was circulated to government representatives
during the Committee's fist meeting on April 16.
Mukherjee, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, Law Minister
Veerappa Moily, Home Minister P Chidambaram and Water
Resources Minister Salman Khurshid represent the government on
the JDC.
The civil society members are Hazare, former Law Minister
Shanti Bhushan, senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan, Karnataka
Lokayukta Santosh Hegde and RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal.
Hazare's supporters held a rally in the national capital
and demanded quick passage of Janlokpal Bill.
Similar rallies were also held in more than 20 cities
including Mumbai, Pune, Lucknow, Kanpur, Indore, Silchar,
Jaipur, Moradabad, Raipur, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai,
Chandigarh, Hojai (Assam), Kanyakumari, Thiruvananthapuram and
Vishakapatnam.
"People are expecting a lot out of the joint committee
and we are all conscious of the fact what they are expecting.
"I don't see any reason, I don't doubt it all that we as
drafting committee or they as government are in any way going
to be marking time," former IPS officer Kiran Bedi said.