Lokpal Bill Public Consultation

PRABHAT Says:
# A6018LB June 23rd, 2011 at 8:59 pm

In brief the following points to ponder:-

1. Eleven members of the lokpal comittee be selected by a comittee,specially formed for this purpose, and should have equal numbers from govt.side and from the so called non-political civil society.
2. They should have at least 80% of approval of the selection comittee.
3. They should have the status at par with chief election commessioner or supreme court judge. Independent of govt. interference. Only answerable to parliament.
4. Persons found having black money should be put in prefixed slabs, according to the amount recovered, and punishment should also be accordingly. i.e. higher the amount , higher the punishment.
5. Money thus recovered be the national property.
6. Priority should be given to check generation of new black money, and old cases can be handeled side by side.
6.

Manoj Panda Says:
# A6015LB June 23rd, 2011 at 8:08 pm

Fellow Countrymen,

You are doing a good job. My full support is with you. My suggestion is somehow we should not be over burdened with the enormity of this task. To tackle that my suggestion is to set ourselves targets for specific periods.
1) Year 1 : Limit Lokpal bill to just the politicians and bureaucrat
2) Year 2 : Add judiciary
3) Year 3 : Add tier 2 bureaucrats and so on

What we are going to achieve by doing this are
- We will have concrete result to substantiate this initiative and expand the gambit over several years .
- A lot of corrupt people will get some time to change their habit and their transition from corrupt to non corrupt will be smooth.
- We will all have more support from everyone

What I am trying to say is let’s negotiate with the govt with the above suggestion already embedded in the bill and that way we don't have to go to parliament again .

Somnath Mukherjee Says:
# A4649LB June 13th, 2011 at 6:25 pm

Hi,

I had sent one round of feedback earlier..Here is a second "tranche"..

1. 11 members (incl Chairman) is far too many..Its supposed to be an overseery body, Lokpals are not expected to go and do the dirty job of investigations and prosecutions...5 members, including the Chairman should be good enough..
2. The current provision of "at least 4 members from the judicial/legal profession" (out of 11) is pretty ok, given the largely legalistic nature of the mandate..In a 5 member scenario, it should be 2-3.
3. The remaining members, 2-3 in number, should have at least one representative with a background in police/central investigation services...
4. The suggestion on the composition of the selection committee was given in the earlier proposal. As for the "search committee", the suggested number and composition is largely fine, save one point...The 5 "civil society" members should not be nominated by the 5 other appointed members, but by the Chairman RS (VP, also the chairman of the selection committee) from the pool of nominated members of RS (who are basically "eminent civil society members")...

Regards
Somnath

Durdundi Says:
# A4644LB June 13th, 2011 at 5:49 pm

what is drafted in JanLokpal bill is right because it is useful to public of India but what government is prepared it is inspire to corruption to member of parliament and prime minister. I want to give you suggestion traffic Police demanding Rs.50 as corruption amount it is ok but crime. But parliament member is making corruption in thousands of crores I think and I want to suggess lokpal committee that you must make one clause in janlokpal that if parliament member finds corruption it is declares as DESH DROHI and bind on his family that his family cannot be member in any government department or party member in politics.

Asha Lal Says:
# A4622LB June 13th, 2011 at 4:41 pm

have just seen the press confc of Team Anna(3.30pm, June13) n am extremely happy to notice that u have given a most befitting response to Pranab M. Please continue n even increase your visibility on the tv. My fervent appeal n request n humble advice is that alongwth the eloquent Mr Tejriwal, Mr Bhushan n oters, Dr Kiran Bedi too MUST address press confcs_such a measure will bring it the support of the female population.
A few limes of poet Dushyant Kumar are VERY VERY RELEVANT to ANNA"s EMANCIPATION OF CORRUPTION MOVEMENT n im quoting them_
"Ho gayee hai peeer parvat si pigalni chahiye, Iss Himalalay se ab koee Ganga nikalni chahiye,Aaj pardon ki tarah hilne lagee hain deewarein, Sharrt magar ye tthi ki neev hilni chahiye! Sirrf hangama khada karna mera maqusat nahin, Meri koshish ye hai ki tasveer badalni chahiye, Mere seene mein na sahi tere seene mein sahi, Aag kaheen bhee ho lekin aag JALNEE chahiye ". From Dr asha lal' Associate Professor, Dept of Philosophy, University of Allahabad' Allahabad

Mukesh Urmaliya Says:
# A4582LB June 13th, 2011 at 10:48 am

Hello IAC,

I have an important suggestion to bring MPs, PM and Judges under Lokpal:

Bringing Supreme Court and High Court Judges under Lokpal

If Lokpal finds any complain, Proof, Documents against any Judges and (Not all cases) whereever Lokpal feels that to be investigated further then Lokpal can go to Supreme Court where SC (or a Bench) will provide a hearing and in the single hearing Lokpal will provide the reason, proofs and documents as to why Lokpal wants to investigate further. In the same hearing SC can decide on the basis of available facts whether Investigation should start or not.

This way the argument that SC or HC is coming under Lokpal will be invalid and since SC will not take the decision in close doors and instead permission will be given on the basis of Proofs and Documents in an open hearing so It would be tough for Supreme Court to save the wrong judges.

Bringing Prime Minister and MPs under Lokpal:

MPs can be treated same way as SP/HC Judges this will invalidate the argument that Lokpal is a SuperPowered authority or above Parliament. (If Lokpal finds any complain, Proof, Documents against any MP and (Not all cases) whereever Lokpal feels that to be investigated further then Lokpal can go to Supreme Court where SC (or a Bench) will provide a hearing and in the single hearing Lokpal will provide the reason, proofs and documents as to why Lokpal wants to investigate further. In the same hearing SC can decide on the basis of available facts whether Investigation should start or not.)

In case of Prime Minister, Whereever Lokpal wants to invetigate Prime Minister Lokpal will inform LokSbha Speaker and Speaker will conduct a Voting with in parliment, If 25% Loksabha Members (% can be discussed in Joint commitee) vote in favor of Invetigation then Lokpal can start invetigation on PM.

This will also nullify the Govt excuses that Lokpal is a Super authority than PM and It would be very tough for the Govt to save PM from invetigation because Buying 75% MPs including Opposition is a very Tough Deal.

Thank You..

Vinod Says:
# A4576LB June 13th, 2011 at 10:16 am

In the name of god, few religious group in India misuse the donation shared by the innocent people. What i feel is, all donations, wherever it may be donated, must come under scanner too.

Most of bussinessmen (small or big scale ) are earning lakhs per MONTH, but are escaping from paying TAX. Hence there must be strong law to track such tax evaders.

Baljit Singh Says:
# A4571LB June 13th, 2011 at 9:00 am

I have following suggestions-
1) Try to include all ' Public Servants' under the preview of lok Pal i/c PM, MPs. and senior govt. officials.
2) In case govt has any reservations about inclusion of any of these then you should tell the govt that these should be included in normal course with a provision that suitable authority can refrain Lok Pal to take action, if govt. feels. This should be on case to case basis. For example, if Lokpal recieves any complaint against any MP, Lokpal will inform the speaker of that house about the complaint. There should be a committee comprising of PM, Leader of the opposition, speakers of LS and RS and Lokpal to go through the case and submit its recommendations within 30/45 days. If no reply is recieved then Lokpal should initiate action. Similarly in case of senior govt. officials, Lokpal will forward the complaint to the govt. In case govt feels that the case may be dropped, it should reply with in 30/45 days giving reasons for their recommendations. In case no reply is recieved it will be deemed that govt. has no objection and case may be investigated.
In case of PM the present procedure of taking action may be strenthend and made more transparent. Govt. will have no case agaist this suggestion.

R S Yadav Says:
# A4541LB June 13th, 2011 at 12:44 am

Most of the government /semi govt projects are being carried over on contract basis.The workers are actually being paid less (nearly half amount) than the amount they are appointed for.This is a fact and has become a routine practice.Rest of money is being bagged by other persons.It becomes visible only after when we see some people suddenly purchasing land,big houses,luxury cars etc.People can't say but but start saluting these persons.This is only one example in many about the fate of our countrymen.
-- Less payment does not attract qualified worker.
-- Less payment leads to poor quality of work.
Therefore such system causing creation of black money should also be checked before creation rather than after creation.

Dhiman Says:
# A4428LB June 12th, 2011 at 1:24 am

Sir,

Thank you for soliciting public feedback regarding the proposed Lokpal Bill. I have read through the full text draft of the bill and have the following suggestion/comments:

1. Inclusion of a "Research, Analysis, and Publication Wing" under the LokPal.
The draft bill mandates that Lokpal should have an "Investigation Wing" (Section 25) and a "Prosecution Wing" (Section 25A). I would like to suggest that LokPal should also have a separate "Research, Analysis, and Publication Wing".

The "Research, Analysis, and Publication Wing" would be responsible for:
a) Researching and Publishing an annual public report on "State of Corruption". This report shall include qualitative and quantitative analysis of current state and trends regarding corruption including future challenges and failures in tacking corruption in India.
b) Carrying out quantitative and qualitative analysis of various economic, social, education, and legal (include taxation and revenue) parameters and recommending changes that would lead to reduction of corruption.
c) The "Research, Analysis, and Publication Wing" would be headed by an academician of impeccable integrity who is well versed in areas of quantitative and statistical analysis.
d) For efficiency and effectiveness, all reporting functions of the Lokpal would be centralized within "Research, Analysis, and Publication" wing.

2. In Section 28, please clarify as to what is meant by term "property"

3. In Section 31, maximum penalty of Rs 1 lack is not a sufficient deterrent to rich political and business class of this country. Therefore, maximum penalty should be "one forth of the annual income".

4. In Section 24, Repel the regulation that requires seeking approval from President Of India,Cabinet Secretary of India,C.V.C Commissioner, or Governor before prosecuting a civil servant (IAS, IPS, etc). We are no longer under British rule, so official should not have a higher legal status than common citizens of this country.

5. The section on "Whistleblower protection" should be more friendly towards "Whistleblowers". Currently, the section, as it stands right now appears to be extremely bureaucratic with too many investigative requirements. Whistleblowers should be provided immediate protection upon request. Once that protection has been provided, the LokPal should investigate whether protection is actually needed or not and for how long.