Sharp differences had surfaced at a meeting of the drafting committee for Lokpal Bill a few days ago. The meeting, chaired by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, was attended by HRD minister Kapil Sibal, law minister M Veerappa Moily and home minister P Chidambaram.
Government representatives in the Joint Drafting Committee of Lokpal Bill tonight reviewed the progress made in framing the anti-corruption legislation and firmed up their response to the six contentious issues over which they have differences with civil society counterparts.
Top officials of the law ministry made presentation before government representatives on inclusion of the higher judiciary and the progress made by the Legislative Department in drafting the Lokpal Bill based on points on which there is an agreement between the government and Anna Hazare-led civil society members.
"Out of 40 points, we have agreement on 36. Therefore, it would not be fair to say that no progress has been made," said a government member of the Committee.
The meeting, chaired by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, was attended by HRD minister Kapil Sibal, law minister M Veerappa Moily and home minister P Chidambaram.
Sharp differences had surfaced at a meeting of the drafting committee for Lokpal bill a few days ago with the government disfavouring proposals for inclusion of the Prime Minister, higher judiciary and acts of MPs inside Parliament under its purview.
Hazare, one of the members of the committee, who is spearheading the campaign for a strong and effective Lokpal bill, said he was not hopeful of the government meeting its deadline of June 30 for preparing the bill.
Besides Hazare, the civil society members consists of Karnataka Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde, advocate Prashant Bhushan, former Law Minister Shanti Bhushan and RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal.
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