Thaindian News

Ghaziabad, Nov 2 (IANS) Calling the Uttarakhand bill on creating a Lokayukta (ombudsman) a historic step to check corruption in the country, Team Anna Wednesday said that all eyes are on the central government to see if it approves of the measure.

“Uttrakhand government bill needs approval of the central government. We have to see if the central government gives approval. The Lokpal bill created by the government calls for creation of Lokayukta in each state and we have to see if central government bill will weaken Uttarakhand bill,” said Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal.

He said that it’s a historic and bold step taken by the state government to check corruption.

“Our team had only three meetings with Uttarakhand government and the bill was finalised while we have had nine meetings with central government and the new law which came in August was to protect the corrupt rather than punishing them,” he said.

Kejriwal said that the central government is not passing the Jan Lokpal bill and if it sat on the Uttrakhand government’s bill, it will send out a negative message.

This decision of the central government would give us the signal whether it was inclined to bring in parliament an anti-graft bill which was as strong as the Jan Lokpal, he said.

The central government’s stand on the Uttarakhand bill would indicate what kind of preparations we need to make for the future course of our agitation, Kejriwal said.

He said Team Anna member Kumar Vishwas, along with three other members, was assigned the task to coordinate with the state governments, including Uttarakhand on the anti-graft legislation.

Although the deliberations were going on with other governments, the Uttarakhand government accepted a majority of the proposals of Jan Lokpal bill, Kejriwal said.

The state bill has brought the lower judiciary, bureaucracy, chief minister, ministers, legislators and members of parliament from the state under the purview of the ombudsman, he said.

“We believe this bill of the state government was a great step forward in the people’s movement to tackle corruption,” he said.