Lokpal Bill referred to parliamentary standing committee

The Lokpal Bill, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha last week, has been referred to a parliamentary standing committee for in-depth scrutiny.

The bill has been sent by Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari to the Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances and Law and Justice which has been given three months to submit its report, a Parliament source said.

Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi, who is a senior advocate, was only recently appointed the head of the committee in place of Jayanthi Natarajan who became a minister in the recent reshuffle.

The bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 4 amid BJP's objection over non-inclusion of the office of the Prime Minister under the purview of the anti-corruption watchdog.

A section in the government had earlier hoped that the standing committee would examine the bill within this month so that it could be taken up in the current session itself.

No other bill in the recent past has evoked so much controversy as the Lokpal Bill. The government for the first time constituted a Joint Drafting Committee consisting of five representatives each from the government's side and the civil society represented by Gandhian Anna Hazare.

Civil society activists had burnt copies of the government Lokpal Bill after it was introduced in Parliament terming it anti-poor.

Hazare has decided to go an indefinite fast from August 16 against the draft Lokpal Bill.

The bill keeps the office of the Prime Minister, higher judiciary and conduct of MPs inside Parliament outside the purview of the ombudsman.