Second Lokpal panel meet today

Pranab discusses strategy with ministers

Five Union ministers and an equal number of social activists will sit across the table on Monday for the second meeting of the joint panel of the government and civil society tasked with preparing the draft Lokpal Bill to set up an independent and empowered institution to combat the menace of graft.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who co-chairs the panel along with former Law minister Shanti Bhushan, on Sunday discussed the government’s strategy with four other ministers on the panel —Home Minister P Chidambaram, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, Law Minister M Veerappa Moily and Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid. Though Hazare has not been keeping well and could not travel to Lucknow on Sunday to join Right To Information activists Arvind Kejriwal and Swami Agnivesh in an anti-corruption campaign, he is expected to be present in the meeting on Monday. Prashant, an eminent lawyer, Kejriwal and Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde are also on the panel to draft the Bill.

Top officials of the Ministry of Law and Justice are likely to make presentations before the drafting committee on the latest version of the proposed Jan Lokpal Bill, which the civil society activists submitted to the government during the first meeting of the panel on April 16 last. While presentations by the Law Ministry officials will reflect the government’s views on the Jan Lokpal Bill, the civil society activists are expected to convey to the Union Ministers their opinions about other drafts of the proposed legislation. The panel is likely to meet more often after Monday.

The second meeting of the Joint Drafting Committee is being held almost three weeks after the government constituted it in the wake of Gandhian social activist Hazare’s fast-unto-death stir to press for a strong Lokpal Bill. Sources said that the meet would also decide the modalities for public consultations.

The meeting is being held against the backdrop of differences within the civil society on bringing the PM and higher judiciary within the purview of the Lokpal (in the Centre) or Lokayuktas (in the states).