Lokpal Bill Public Consultation

Muruli Mohan K Says:
# A2393LB May 26th, 2011 at 6:19 pm

Respected Sir/Madam,
Lokpal Bill is very urgently needed to curb corruption. My suggestion is let the Lokpal Bill Act must necessarily contain following information. For Example "If any common man approach the government office with prescribed application to get it work done....If official finds deficiency in documents as per law prescribed to that particular work... Official has to give written explanation saying what are the requirements needed to fulfill the work along with official seal and his/her signature with rejected application instead of simply rejecting the application".

Presently local government officials rejecting the application without reason and even they are not guiding applicant what documents needed. It is very essential from government official to give written explanation for rejecting application along with official seal and his/her signature. Next time applicant approaches for same work with required documents mentioned in "written explanation for rejecting application". Government official has to get it work done without objecting. Please include this type of para in lokpal act. Thank you.

Milap Choraia Says:
# A2388LB May 26th, 2011 at 5:41 pm

MILAP CHORARIA
B-5/52, Sector-7, Rohini, New Delhi-110085
Website: http://milapchoraria.tripod.com/msp / http://www.freelists.org/list/rtitimes
https://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/rti-times/ E-Mail: milap.choraria@yahoo.com
Dated: 25th May, 2011
To,
Respected Members of Lokpal Drafting Committee,
Through : Sri Prashant Bhusanji, and Sri Arvind Keejriwalji,
lokpalbillcomments@gmail.com,

Respected Sirs,
I may be allowed to submit following suggestions for the kind consideration by the Lokpal Bill Drafting Committee:-
1. Why President, Prime Minister and Judges of Supreme Court and High Court should be accountable before the law and within the ambit of the Lokpal Institution?

One of the basic fundamental principles of democracy is that everyone should be accountable before the law and system irrespective of his status or position. This principle is also applicable in USA, the most powerful democracy of the world. In fact only for this reason USA is powerful. We can cite the examples of Mr. Nixon and Mr. Bill Clinton.

Since the President, Prime Minister and Judges of Supreme Court and High Court are taking oath of the Constitution, it means they are accountable to adhere the proprietary and efficacy of the Constitution, and in case they do not adhere to the proprietary and efficacy of the Constitution, the citizen should have right to redress any grievances against them, by lodging a complaint before the Lokpal. If they are not covered within the ambit of accountability it means they are not accountable to Oath taken under the Constitution.

The definition of corruption should be defined in a clear language, without any ambiguity, so no one can misuse the Lokpal Institution for personal vendetta.

Whenever any complaint is lodges against any person holds office of the President, Prime Minister and Judges of Supreme Court and High Court, such complaint should be heard and investigated by and under the direct Supervision of Full Bench of Lokpal Institution.

Once prima-facie a case of corruption is made out by a complainant against any person holding the office of the President, Prime Minister and Judges of Supreme Court and High Court, same should be transferred to a High Court for trial, under the Criminal Procedure Code and or under Prevention of Corruption Act or under any other law, applicable in a particular matter.

2. The Members of the Lokpal Institution should be covered within the ambit of investigation by the Lokpal Institution.
Any complaint against any Member of the Lokpal Institution should be heard and investigated by and under direct Supervision of the Full Bench barring a member having under complaint.

3. With regard to any complaint against President, Prime Minister and Judges of Supreme Court and High Court or any Member of Lokpal, Full Bench means all the Members of the Lokpal Institution, except the respective member of the Lokpal Institution, against whom complaint is heard or investigated.

4. Property of the Private Parties, responsible for any damage to public properties/exchequer/revenue through any corrupt practices should be seized.

5. That according to Website of in the Lokpal Drafting Joint committee Meeting of 23rd May, 2011 an issue “Lokpal shall have powers to delegate any of its powers and functions barring those which are specifically to be performed by the benches of Lokpal.” And “There was a long discussion on this issue. Government’s vision of Lokpal is an 11 member body, which will have quasi judicial powers and that body will pass all orders. That is very different from our vision. Such a model would create problems as that would overburden Lokpal with immense workload and make Lokpal unwieldy. Our vision of Lokpal – an institution headed by 11 member body. This body would have quasi judicial powers but primarily be a supervisory body. There will be many officers under that body, who would be designated authorities under this Act and would themselves also have quasi judicial powers under this Act. Government would examine it and revert.” In this respect my suggestion is that Lokpal Shall Jurisdiction over the complaints against President, Prime Minister, Minister of all ranks, Judges of Supreme Court and High Courts Members of Parliament and Public Servants from the All-India Services, and any other public servant connected therewith. Any complaint against a public servant, not covered within the aforesaid jurisdiction shall be disposed of by the head of respective department, as an assignee of the Lokpal.

With Best Regard to all Members,




Milap Choraria

Prof R K Gupta- Hony President 'janshakti.org' Says:
# A2383LB May 26th, 2011 at 3:52 pm

We should understand why corruption takes place.
1.Collusion with corrupt members of public like contractors giving them unfair advantage in deals and take bribe
2.Deny action on application of citizen
3.Delay action

Today specially after Singh became Prime Minister the babudom has no accountability at all.There is no action from a IG level to Peon.Officers are just not willing to take action on any one.All are competing to loot.

The solutions are
1.Make life imprisonment as punishment for corruption
2.Asset recovery law be enacted.All immovable and movable assets be attached and sold to recover 10 times corruption amount or put in national treasury
3.Withdraw all pension and other benefits ot corrupt officer
4.The current administrative tribunals should be given powers to hear complaint against officers for denial,delay, misbehaviour or bribe taking,
4.No permission needed to prosecute. Any application against any officer specialy class II and above should be mandatory processed and applicant informed of result in 3 months time.If unsatisfied the applicant can go to court.
5. Like in many countries police and babus up to Divisional commissioner and IG should be answerable to a citizens council of 5-7 members in every divisional HQ.The complaints against officers received from public should be made main criterion for promotion, demotion, dismissal ,penaltiers and renewal of service contract.All class II and above posts should be renewable for 3 years each after completion of 10 years. Government jobs are not charity postings and for life time.Besides complaints other criteria to be used are performance against benchmarks and feed back from public survey (visitors to office)
6.To clean the filth in India and in view of computerised banking and debit/credit cards now demonetise rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes,.This will also reduce problem of fake currency circulation.

I doubt that Jan Lokpal will be effective.Who is going to appoint Lokpal and how it will function with corrupt employees in office and political pressures.
See how CVC office has been compromised. CVC is otherwise enough to keep check on corrupt officials.But it has no powers and cant' function.Corrupt people are appointed as CVC

JAIDEEP KUMAR GUPTA RTI ACTIVIST MATKHERA ROAD BILASPUR RAMPUR U.P.244921 MOB 9359395672 Says:
# A2378LB May 26th, 2011 at 2:43 pm

१.लोकपाल बिल में यह प्रावधान किया जाये की किसी भी कार्यवाही की जानकारी आर टी आई के अंतर्गत कोई भी ले सके!
२.मंत्री या विभाग अपने प्रत्येक कार्य के निपटान हेतु समय सीमा तय करे जिसके उल्लंघन पर जुर्माना या याचिकाकर्ता के पक्ष में एक तरफा फैसला करने का अधिकार लोकपाल को हो!
३.प्रत्येक व्यक्ति(आम आदमी) की पंहुच लोकपाल तक हो यह सुनिश्चित होना चाहिए तथा किसी भी शिकायत को इन्टरनेट पर दर्ज किये जाने व् इसकी शिकायत से सम्बन्धित


कार्यवाही का एस एम् एस के जरिये अलर्ट / एक्नोव्लेज करने की सुविधा सुनिश्चित हो!
४.प्रत्येक तीन माह में लोकपाल एस एम् एस /इन्टरनेट/डाक के जरिये एक जनमत सर्वे आयोजित करे जैसे "आपकी नजर में देश का सबसे भ्रष्ट नेता , अफसर या व्यक्ति कौन ?" बिना किसी विकल्प के इस सवाल के जवाब में सबसे ऊपर के तीन लोगो की सम्पति एवं व्यवहार की जांच कर्राई जाय साबित होने पर उसे पदमुक्त करते हुए , वसूली /जब्ती के उपर्रांत उसे जेल भेजा जाय !
५. कोई एक व्यक्ति या नेता /अफसर पर तीन बार से अधिक आरोप सिद्ध होते है तो उसके लिए फांसी की सजा का प्रावधान होना चाहिए!
जीडीप कुमार गुप्ता मत्खेरा रोड बिलासपुर रामपुर उ. प.२४४९२१

MONEY VM Says:
# A2369LB May 26th, 2011 at 11:43 am

Few suggestions given below:
Sec. 2 Definition:
2 (4) “Corruption.”
Definition be wider. Nepotism also be included if it is not explicitly clear in the definition “Corruption.

2 (7) “grievance”
b) “ grievance” also means a claim by a person that he had been asked directly or indirectly by the concerned official, officer or employee to bribe to get his work done; but have no evidence to approach Public Grievance Officer of the Department.

2 (8) “Lokpal”

b. Any officer, employee, institution or non-government organization exercising its powers and carrying out its functions and responsibilities, in the manner and to the extent, assigned to it under this Act, or under various rules, regulations or orders made under various provisions of this Act .

2(13) “Whistleblower” definition covers only if there a is threat? Those who makes a complaint or apply for information under RTI act etc. shall be a Whistleblower than waiting for threat from some source. Protection to whistleblower should be available without waiting for a threat. Hope some amendment to the definition will take care of.

Sec. 4 Chairperson and Members of Lokpal –
Minimum academic qualification and experience must also be included.
Sec. 5 Is the proviso to sec. 5(3) required? To some extent appointment to Lokpal be a service to society. Person working in private sector may be drawing a huge salary which Govt. may not be ready to pay. Salary to Chairperson and Members of Lokpal be at par with Supremecourt chief justice and justice.

Following items may also be included in the bill:

1. Power to take sou-moto action from media reports, Court strictures etc. against the persons involved. Public are aware of existence of various mafias in our country, no whistleblower may come forward against them. If Lokapal also helpless in such circumstances it would be a great loss for our country.
2. Power to confiscate and recover Immovable and movable properties immediately on taking action against corrupt people. Incase of non-genuine complaints, value along with interest of the confiscated / recovered property shall be refunded. This will take care of natural justice – no innocent person be penalized.
3. Amendment in sec. 2(8) be suggested with a view that Lokpal must have power to appoint Private investigative agencies and security forces.
I am not a legal expert, just some idea given that's only.

Sanjaybhargava Says:
# A2363LB May 26th, 2011 at 10:30 am

Fwd: Suggestions for lokpal bill drafting
Sent from my iPadBegin forwarded message:From: Sanjay Bhargava <sanjaybhargava@yahoo.com>Date: May 25, 2011 7:05:40 PM EDTTo: "lokpalbillcoments@gmail.com" <lokpalbillcoments@gmail.com>, "suggestions-lokpal@nic.in" <suggestions-lokpal@nic.in>Subject: Suggestions for lokpal bill draftingSent from my iPadBegin forwarded message:From: Anita Bhargava <anita@letsdoitdelhi.org>Date: May 19, 2011 9:04:54 AM EDTTo: Arvind Kejriwal <parivartanindia@gmail.com>Cc: Sanjay Bhargava <sanjaybhargava@yahoo.com>Subject: Re: Interview by Paranjoy Guha Thakurta

Arvind,As we approach the final deadline of June 30th
when the role of the JDC ends and the work of parliament starts thought should
be given to what the final output that will be given to parliament will look
like. Maybe this has already been done. Please treat the points below as inputs
towards this process. Please use anything that makes sense and disregard the
rest. In a separate document attached  we
have given specific inputs on expenses of Lokpal , on sections 21-25 of v 2.2
of the bill which cover citizen charter, grievances etc. and on a voluntary
disclosure scheme.

 

Final output on June 30 will be a document which outlines
the final version of the JDC Bill which all sections on which there was
agreement and on those sections where there was diasagreement it gives the
civil society stand and the ministers stand alongwith public opinion on a five
point scale as below

 

1-   
strongly agree with govt stand

2-   
moderately agree with govt stand

3-   
neither agree nor disagree with govt stand

4-   
moderately agree with civil society stand

5-   
strongly agree with civil society stand

 

This final output will make the job of parliament easier.
Civil society can keep giving inputs to parliament while parliament considers
the bill.

 

If possible version 3.0 of the Lokpal bill should be put up
in the format above by May 31, 2011 and inputs and public opinion should be
invited till midnight on June 15th, 2011. Based on the inputs
received the final version should be put up by June 23 and public opinion
sought till midnight of June 30, 2011 .




 




On 17 May 2011 20:40, <parivartanindia@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear sanjay,Everything about jt drafting comm meetings is on the website. What exactly would u like to know? And pl feel free to call me anytime for any questions that u have. Regards
Arvind. From: Sanjay Bhargava <sanjaybhargava@yahoo.com>
Sender: iac_bill@googlegroups.com
Date: Tue, 17 May 2011 13:04:54 -0400To: iac_bill@googlegroups.com<iac_bill@googlegroups.com>
ReplyTo: iac_bill@googlegroups.com
Cc: iac_bill@googlegroups.com<iac_bill@googlegroups.com>; Arvind Kejriwal<parivartan_india@rediffmail.com>; Arvind Kejriwal<parivartanindia@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Interview by Paranjoy Guha ThakurtaNice and the website is better as well. Still not clear about how the joinr drafting is going. Should that be clarified ?
Sent from my iPadOn May 17, 2011, at 11:03 AM, Priya VK Singh <priya.vksingh@yahoo.co.in> wrote:
Arvind, I am bowled over by the interview! Excellent!! Congratulations !!! I have shared it with all my FB friends, and like minded persons in my contact list.
Way to go :)))rgdsPriya
-- Anita BhargavaSkype: anitabhargavaWebsite: www.letsdoitdelhi.orgwww.letsdoitdelhi.org
YOU can make a difference.Multiply YOU by 12 million residents and you have changed the course of a city.

Nishikant Deshmukh Says:
# A2319LB May 25th, 2011 at 10:34 pm

Date: May 24, 2011, 7 pm



Members present: Siddharth, Nishikant, Pranav, Swapnil, Sudarshan, Sachin, Seth Billings and two more guests.



Hi all,



Feedbacks from AIDJHU discussion on Janlokpal

Section : 13 C : As in the Radia tape controversy, can a provision be made under Lokpal, that Lokpal can suo moto investigation if any other unlawful activities is observed in that telephonic discussion.

Section : 15 : A complaint to Lokpal should be one way and can be disposed off only if Lokpal committee finds the complaint to be not eligible. Once a complaint is submitted to Lokpal it shouldn't be allowed to be backtracked which can happen under pressure, or on the suspected death of the complainant. It will also make sure that the complainant files a legitimate complaint because Lokpal committee / Supreme court can also initiate fine on the complainant on their wrongful motive.

Section : 18 C : Will the anonymous complaint be free from RTI act ? It does not specify how anonymity will be maintained and anonymity protection should be a separate section.





General recommendations were



1) Based on the experience of backlog in RTI complaint redressal, Janlokpal bill should be well equipped to handle large volume of complaints arriving from different parts of the country.

2) Priority should be explicitly specified for Janlokpal. With the anticipated back log in complaints, politicians will try to overload Janlokpal with too many complaints so that the inquiry takes time while it reaches them. So any complaints against a minister or higher ranking officials should be given more priority to clean the top of the pyramid.



Very important



Although the bill talks about recovering the money from a bureaucrat or politician which caused loss of money to the exchequer, it does not talk about addressing of other important complaints against the bureaucrats.



For e.g. If I complain about illegal mining in Karnataka and the police officer in the area refuses to file an FIR, I go to Lokpal and get the police officer suspended or punished, but what will happen to my original report? There should be provision in Lokpal bill that the original complaint be asked to be investigated by the police. Same applies to income tax department and other areas.



The bottom line is if an official refuses to do my work, Lokpal should make sure my original work is done and the official is punished.

Kamlesh Parihar Says:
# A2303LB May 25th, 2011 at 7:38 pm

1) Pls also make rules regarding the character of all the members of the Institution of LOKpal, like no chargesheet against anyone of them.
2) Then there should be a minimum educational qualification for all the members of Lokpal Institution so that there may not be the case that ill literate and un educated ppl hold the prestigious chair.
3) Right to recall the members of Lokpal members in case of severe allegations against them. Say like 70% of the members of lokpal agree to remove a member of lokpal they can recommend it to president.

Anuj Kumar Says:
# A2299LB May 25th, 2011 at 7:07 pm

A clause should be included in the Jan Lokpal Bill. the clause shold be, "If wards of a Class 1 Gazzetted Officer or A Judicial Officer or a public representative not below the Rank of MLA or MLC gets scholarship or recommendations from any agaency outside the Govt. for higher studies in or outside the country or they get a company sponsered seat for higher or professional studies, it should be declared by the publice servant in his annual declaration of assets and it is open to Lokpal and public scrutiny.

Om Says:
# A2296LB May 25th, 2011 at 5:58 pm

On day to day basis, a common man is harrased by corruption by State Government employee and Department rather than Central Government employee / Department. Central Government Departments, atleast, have some kind of accountabliity in form of Vigilance and CBI watch over them. State Government departments such as Electricity Dept, PWD, Revenue, Sales Tax, Police, etc have a direct effect on common people. Hence, I suggest that all the ACBs (Anti Corruption Branches / Departments of State Police having Police powers to investigate cases also) be brought under ambit of Lokpal. This is a tedious process, but in each state a Lokayukta can be appointed, who may report to Lokpal. Thus a central mechanism in Country can be evolved against Corruption. A Lokpal for Central Governtment will be a half hearted appropach.