Lokpal Bill Public Consultation

Gireesh Says:
# A760LB April 25th, 2011 at 2:48 am

-Since the entire corruption system is based on the motivations of people in power to make money, there should be an effective system to track the money / bank accounts of every Indian. The Universal Identification System being initiated by the Goverment is in the right direction , so that the government can track the financial transactions. There are efforts from different quarters to sabotage this plan. I think IAC should strongly support the implementation of theis scheme. Ques can ve taken from the social security number that has been established for a long time in USA.

India should ratify the UN agreement on corruption, so that the goverment should be able to repatriate any money held in foreign banks, illegally.

We should have a national program to educate people about the dangers of corruption and how to tackle a situation , if they are asked to bribe.

Dr Preshit Pradeep Mulay Says:
# A756LB April 25th, 2011 at 12:54 am

Thank you for this opportunity to give opinion on the draft of lok pal bill.

Every politician should have an approved audited income tax declaration before and after they are elected. These 2 should tally. Once the politician is removed from office or retires after his usual tenure, there should be another audit. Any increase in their wealth should be confesticated by the government. There should be a random audit of atleast 20% of elected representatives every year.

Every person wishing to stand for elections should not have stood for an election within the last 10 years or should not be related to some one who has stood for election in the last 10 years.

Every person standing for office should be a graduate at minimum and should be able to pass a basic exam on constitution.

Constitutional reform introduced by any parliament should have a fixed life. They should expire 1 year after the existing term of the house (central/state/local) is over.

Any politician spending on white elephant projects should contribute 50% for expenses.

Any work undertaken by government should be guaranteed for at least 20 years. If it does not live to its life, the politician should stand on trial. Politicians should hold professional indemnity to cover possible court costs if they cause harm.

Arvind Patel Says:
# A755LB April 25th, 2011 at 12:43 am

REF# A142LB
With further suggestions,to improve the efficiency of lokpal bill,elected members of any level of government,if found guilty and charged of any corruption during the period of his or her position in any level of government,Lokpal should have the right to recall that elected official and re-elect new member to fill in the position.This provision should apply to all the levels of government including the gram panchayat sarpanch to the prime minister of the country.

Shankar Says:
# A754LB April 25th, 2011 at 12:31 am

As a citizen I personally thank all your team for this effort.

Following are my suggestions to the Honorable team members.

1:The enquiry process should be formed in such a way where the authority should estimate the value of scam within 30days. With in next 45 days the authority should cease the money in any form (either as Assets or in liquid form as gold, etc..).
2:With in 90 days of the date of filing the case, a report should be submitted declaring the agreement or order by Government is null and void.
3:Only after completing this process, the enquiry of how the scam has happened and additional list of person involved in scam should be enquired.
4:With in 180 days of the date of filing the case, the authority should again cease the money is any form which is the leftover of the first 75 days trail.
5:The witness of the scam case should be given full protection and the authority should provide grant for his life and properties.
6:All criminal cases related to criminal action against witness (It may be even minor injury done by accuest to witness) should be heard only by this authority.
7:The Authority should follow the Military Code or Law for punishing or passing Judgments in the all criminal cases.
8:With in 5 days of filing of cases, the authority should block passport of the accuest to the suit.
9:The trail in Lokpal should be recorded and should be released on the next day over internet on its home page.
10:Only the video of the witness may not be release in some case where witness pleads for the same.
11:The Lokpal should directly be under the control of a board headed by President of India and no Governments (Central or State) should have access over it.
12:The controlling board of Lokpal should be headed by President of India. Supreme court Chief Justice, Chiefs of 3 Military Forces and 5 IAS officers who had serviced as Cheif Secretary in State level and 3 IPS officials should be the members.
13:There should be an RTI Department which should provide all the certified details of cases excluding the witness personal information with in 30 days.
14:Any persons who are punished or accuest of a case (either scam related or criminal case) should be banned from holding paid or non payable posting in Government.
15:The details od persons punished by Lokpal should be permenantly removed from Election department.

Dinesh Kumar D Says:
# A751LB April 25th, 2011 at 12:18 am

Congratulations for this initiative.

My suggestions on lokpal bill;

I observed that creating awareness about lokpal bill, is mentioned in 31(A) under preventive measures of the Jan Lokpal 2.2 . This is cited in the miscellaneous section of the bill. Creating awareness should be one of the main functions of lokpal. In current scenario, people have become so tolerant towards corruption and they don't even realize the ill-effects of corruption. My suggestion would be to create a separate department under Lokpal whose main focus is to spread awareness about Lokpal bill and all ill-effects of corruption.
Following shall be the functions of that department:
a. Create awareness about lokpal bill and educate people about - how to raise a complaint to Lokpal,on what issues complaint can be raised, how would case be handled, what sort of protection will be given to raise complaints(protection in case need occurs) etc
b.Create awareness about reward programs and recognition mentioned in the Lokpal bill. It is very necessary to make people know about this to encourage people to report corruption.
c. And most important thing to create awareness is educate people on how badly corruption affects our growth across the country and affects all levels of people. As I said earlier, People have become tolerant towards corruption and they don't even feel guilty and don't realize giving or taking bribe is wrong. And even in the case of big corruption scams, people tendency is to ignore those things and take it as a normal thing that every politician is corrupt and we can't do anything about that. People who get their work done by giving bribe thinks that they are smart and they are so ignorant that it will actually come back and affect their life in some way. So, department's main focus is to create awareness about corruption and its ill-effects and educate them how deeply it will affect the growth of the society. Awareness campaign should be conducted across all parts of the the country from rural to urban.

This department should be provided separate funds to carry out these campaigns. Lokpal should ensure the effectiveness of this department.

Philip Moran Says:
# A746LB April 24th, 2011 at 11:51 pm

I believe that the Jan Lokpal will not succeed as expected until two related features of Indian public life are also altered substantially.
First, the existence of over-weening bureaucracy and excessive regulation of ordinary and everyday activities in which citizens engage. As a consequence of these phenomena, private citizens and business leaders expect to spend months, and sometimes years, filling forms; attending meetings; satisfying one departmental functionary after another; and thereby spending inordinate amounts of time and money merely to fulfil a Byzantine array of regulations. It has been said that the present tortuous regulatory regime is essential to maintain employment and provide consumer income for millions of households; but that justification is manifestly unjust and inefficient in fiscal terms. In more advanced international communities, the extent and purposes of such pompous and convoluted have been questioned and they have been simplified; but not yet in India. So long as they exist, and the functionaries who administrate them, citizens and business leaders will be prepared to pay for their circumvention or expedition. The only solution lies in a wholesale rationalisation and simplification of the regulatory and bureacratic structures of public life.
Second, the cultural and institutional unwillngness to punish public servants to any meaningful degree. So crooked or false policemen are merely moved to another force; corrupt FDA officials are redirected to another District; criminal politicians merely appeal to their electorates by handing out more sarees and sacks of grain; and so on. So long as this unwillingness is perpetuated by States and the Federal authorities, the general public will have no confidence in Jan Lokpal. The only solution to this resistance is the proper and effective punishment of corruption-offenders including dismissal, imprisonment, heavy fines, sequestration of family bank accounts, and exile.

It is my fervent hope and desire to see India rise above its reputation as one of the world's most corrupt business and governmental sectors. In my business connections, and those of my colleagues, crores of Rupees and thousands of man-days have been wasted over the years. We remain in business here only because of our love of the country and belief in its destiny; but these are wearing thin in light of increasing publicity about official corruption and institutionalised dishonesty. I have lived in India for many years but, quite soon now, I intend to move my business interests out of the country unless Jan Pokpal is to be accompanied by a radical overhaul of the regulatory framework of public policy; and there is evidence that offenders will be treated appropriately and seriously.

Ankur Srivastava Says:
# A742LB April 24th, 2011 at 11:42 pm

The mission to curb menace against corruption spearheaded by civil society organisation - India against corruption - is highly audacious and commendable.Given out the fact that the persons involved are from the diverse fields and highly experience and they have proven their mettle at the international fora.
(i) The draft should have have provision of setting up trial court or tribunal where the accussed can be tried in right legal spirit and the appeal should directly lie to the apex court, as this will provide level playing field, all these have to be in particular time frame, then only this forum against corruption can prove to be efficient.
(ii) Committee members should belong from the diverse backgrounds like legal,social activist,lawyer,acamedician,civil servants etc with all having good records of personal integrity and free from any political, corporate and muscle power influence.
(iii) Committee functions have to be transparent, fair and their action should be legitimate and in the interest of the nation.
(iv) Their should be a training institute - Indian anti-corruption training institute - with centres spreading out to the corners of the country where periodic training can be provided to the public officials, MPs, MLAs, bureaucrats and also to the accussed apart from penal action and fine.
Thank You
Good luck- India can do it.

Dr.L.P.GUPTA Says:
# A738LB April 24th, 2011 at 11:23 pm

An ordinary citizen can see every where in every city of this country , disproportionate assets of politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen in real estate-palatial bungalows, farm houses, hotels, colleges from black money without paying income tax.How this is not visible to officials of Income tax department, anti-corruption wing, vigilance department etc. of governments at central or state level is surprising. ? Unless a complaint in writing is made to these departments they do not act. But in the present set up where there is no rule of law, where murders of whistle blowers are not uncommon who will dare to complain of such disproportionate cases. We suggest that there should be a rule that all such anti-corruption departments & supervisory officials of all government departments can take suo moto notice of such disproportionate assets for investigation & register cases for disproportionate cases if found against individuals having such assets & there should not be any need of permission from supervisory authorities for prosecution.

Yogesh Singh Says:
# A737LB April 24th, 2011 at 11:14 pm

Dear Sir,

As said attack is the best defence.

In order to defend the working against corruption from the ill forces, I would suggest a small team should be made that keep posting in the website regularly regarding all the cases in which a politician has been convicted or named or chargesheeted. It would help a lot to all the people in gathering information as a profile of any politician.

Should the media divert itself towards the profile of politician, I believe a lot of politician would abstain from burning their fingers raising any issue.

Pls take this suggestion for the sake of the countrymen.

Also, the task of IAC should not get confined to drafting alone but also exposing the deeds of the culprits and hence making the public more aware.

Regards

Yogesh Singh

Balaji Ganesan Says:
# A736LB April 24th, 2011 at 11:04 pm

Summary: Please do not create a Frankenstein monster. We only need a Public Ombudsman.

Please consider the following in the Lokpal bill:

1. Use the 1968 Lokpal bill as the base. Bring every constitutional office under the preview of Lokpal including the Prime Minister.

2. Ensure that only elected representatives are in the appointment panel of Lokpal. Even supreme court judges have no locus standi in any executive appointment. Arbitrary inclusion civil society members like noble laureates is making a mockery of the constitution. Let executive find suitable candidates, legislature appoint and judiciary have the power to verify the legality of the appointment. Like it happens in CVC appointment. This method worked as evidenced in the recent removal of Shri P J Thomas. He even got his due legal recourse to state his case.

3. Do not abolish the requirement to seek the permission of the speaker/senior official to investigate or prosecute an MP/junior officers. Instead give allow the Lokpal to appeal in a court of law against the speaker/senior official's decision.

4. Allow the Lokpal to order investigation by CBI or any agency of the union or the states. But do not make them subordinate to the Lokpal. let them remain independent in action but under executive control for funding/personnel related reasons. Lokpal and by extension Lokayukta should not be considered as police officers but only the representative of the plaintiff. The plaintiff being the citizen who brought the issue to the Lokpal.

5. Do not bring Grievance Redressal under Lokpal. That can be considered as part of a separate "Right to Government Services Act" on the lines of "Right to Information Act". Grievance Redressal will make Lokpal unmanageable.

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Other changes, the draft committee can suggest outside the purview of the lokpal bill.

1. Changes to the Criminal procedure code (section 197) and Prevention of corruption act (section 19) as suggested by Justice Santosh Hegde.

2. Considering the creation of a Central Prosecution Commission on the lines of the CVC, CIC, CAG etc. This commission can study and comment on the arguments made by govt prosecutors in various cases. This will help check the collusion of the prosecutors with the accused to sabotage the case. Just as CAG reports are used to find faults in financial decisions made by the executive, the new Prosecution Commission reports can be used by parliament and/or the gove to act against errant prosecutors.