The Lokpal bill or also referred as the Citizen’s Ombudsman Bill is an anticorruption bill that has been drafted and drawn by the civil society activists of India, seeking an independent body to investigate on the corrupted cases. The main aim of this bill is to discourage corruption and compensate citizen grievances. The name Jan or Citizen has been incorporated so that it includes the inputs laid by the common man, through activist driven, public consultation.
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In order to draw attention from the government, the India Against Corruption (IAC) was started in 2011, which was focused campaign by Anna Hazare. The Lokpal bill was introduced in 1968 by Shanti Bhushan and was passed at the 4th Lok Sabha in 1969. Unfortunately, before the bill got passed by Rajya Sabha, the Lok Sabha was dissolved and the bill never got passed, even though there were subsequent versions in many years from then. Since 1968, till 2011, around 9 times the bill has been introduced in the Parliament; however the bill has never been passed.
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The main key features of the bill are:
- To establish a central anti corruption institute called the Lokpal which will be supported by the Lokayukta at the state level.
- The members of this committee would be appointed by judges, Indian Administrative officers who hold a clean record, constitutional authorities and private citizens through a transparent process.
- Lokpal to be supervised by Cabinet Secretary and the election Commission, and hence be completely independent from the Government and ministerial influence.
- Publication of selected cases and the updates and actions taken and cases received from Lokayukta of the previous month to be updated on its website.
- Within a year, the investigation of any case needs to be completed, or at the maximum within two years the case should be closed.
- At the time of conviction , the loss to the government would be recovered from the corrupted individual.
- Any Government office work not completed within the prescribed time, would attract the Lokpal in imposing financial penalties to the responsible person.
- Any complaints against the Lokpal member would be investigated with a month and action taken with two months, if found guilty.
- Existing anti corruption agencies like CBI and CVC would be merged, but would work independently on their investigation.
With all these transparent condition put forward, there have been difference of opinions between the civil activists and the Government and till date the bill has not yet been passed, for the main difference being their difference of opinion. The attention on the Lokpal bill started with the indefinite strike called by Anna Hazare, a civil activist stating that the demands of the public were not being accepted. Later with much public support, the Government agreed to consider by setting up a Joint Drafting Commission for the bill. The committee consisted of eight members which included top officials and public activists figures, but failed to come to a compromise and the Government introduced its own version of the bill in the Parliament in August 2011.
There were many controversies regarding the bill in the coming months from August 2011 and Anna Hazare had to go on several strikes and disagreements of the bill by the Government, as they were all made in favor of the Government and the corrupted and not for the people. After much debate, the bill was presented at the Rajya Sabha , where it got jammed again.
The bill, however has received many critics as well as support across the nation. The government has come up with many amendments in the bill and willing to pass, however Anna Hazare does not accept the new bill and says that it is not for the “Aam Admi” (Common man). He has said that his fight for the Lokpal Bill will continue till the government agrees to it and has also said his fight for the bill will only intensify in the coming months and would go around the country to create awareness to the public about it.
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Corruption should be brought to an end. Crores of rupees are being looted by the responsible officials at various ranks and if this continues, common man will have to pay for the cost. If the amount that these corrupts loot, a part is retained, India is a much richer country and common man will not have to face these rising price issues and unemployment that has been happing for decades. We have to join hands to get the corrupt out and save ourselves.