1st meeting of Lokpal Bill parliamentary panel on September 23-24

The first meeting of the reconstituted Parliamentary Standing Committee going into the Lokpal Bill will be held on September 23 and 24 when the views of seven to eight witnesses will be recorded.

"We have scheduled detailed deliberations with seven to eight witnesses on September 23 and September 24," chairman of the Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances and Law and Justice Abhishek Singhvi told PTI.

Singhvi, however, refused to divulge which of the witnesses will be called for the deliberations. The committee has been asked to give its report on the Lokpal issue within three months.

The 31-member committee headed by Singhvi was reconstituted along with other similar parliamentary panels by Speaker Meira Kumar in consultation with Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari yesterday itself.

The term of the earlier committee headed by Singhvi was over by August 31 like all other parliamentary committees and the delay in reconstitution of the committee was inviting criticism from some quarters in the backdrop of the government making it clear that it wanted to introduce the Lokpal Bill in the winter session.

While the Rajya Sabha has renominated most of the members on this committee as also on other panels, the speaker decided the composition from the lower ouse in consultation with political parties.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and Manish Tewari of Congress from the Lok Sabha and Amar Singh from the Rajya Sabha are among those renominated to the Committee which has been asked to give its report within three months.