JOIN USCPI to support Aruna Roy's draft on Lokpal Bill
According to party sources, the national executive of the party discussed the issue in its meeting concluded on Friday and came to the conclusion that a decentralised model of Lokpal institution would be the effective for the country.
The party’s stand is similar to that of other left parties including the CPM. The CPM supports the inclusion of the prime minister’s office in the ambit of Lokpal bill but wants a separate mechanism for judicial accountability.
“We support Anna Hazare’s movement. He represents popular sentiment of the country against corruption.
People have lost their patience seeing the phenomenal rise in corruption,” party deputy general secretary Sudhakar Reddy told Deccan Herald.
Commenting on the controversy over the right model of Lokpal bill, Reddy said, “We think that there should be decentralisation of power in Lokpal institution. We are in favour of a strong Lokpal bill, but want different institutions for executive and judiciary. We think the Judicial Accountability Bill should take care of corruption in judiciary.
We think that power should not be concentrated in one institution,” Reddy said.
The party’s national executive is also believed to have discussed BJP leader LK Advani’s yatra and termed it as an “opportunistic attempt to ride on popular sentiment”.
“The BJP leader wants to gain the benefit of popular discontent against corruption,” said Reddy.
CPI is going for a leadership change in 2012 as general secretary A B Bardhan has decided to retire. The new and young leadership will take over.
The national executive discussed the preparations for the national convention scheduled in March next year, said a senior party leader.
‘Bring NGOs and media under Lokpal’
A parliamentary committee on Friday began examining the Lokpal Bill with presentations from a section of the civil society and demands from members for inclusion of NGOs, corporate houses and the media in the ambit of the ombudsman, reports PTI from New Delhi.
Central Vigilance Commissioner Pradeep Kumar was scheduled to make a presentation before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, but the committee meeting was deferred as the deposition by civil society members took too long.
Activists Aruna Roy, Shekhar Singh and Nikhil Dey of the National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information (NCPRI) briefed the committee on their version of the Lokpal Bill.
Roy, Singh and Dey said the Lokpal Bill alone would not suffice to check corruption and other legislations including the Judicial Accountability Bill, Public Grievances Bill, and the Whistleblowers Protection Bill were needed.