LOKPAL BILL

Lokpal Bill was first introduced in parliament in 1968. It has been brought in parliament on eight times on later occasions, but has never been passed by the parliament.

It is a bill that is supposed to give powers to citizens to sue the
people responsible for corruption. A similar kind of independent agency
disappeared corruption from Hong Kong a few decades ago.

The government is again thinking of introducing a Lokpal Bill in
parliament this year, and the National Advisory Council (NAC) chaired by
Sonia Gandhi is considering it. But as it stands today, the bill is
riddled with loopholes, defeating its very purpose. Social activists
have remarked it to be a toothless bill and not at all
acceptable. An alternative bill, the Jan Lokpal Bill has been drafted by
Justice Santosh Hegde (Lokayukta of Karnataka), Prashant Bhushan and
Arvind Kejriwal after series of consultations with public and social
activists. This bill is supported by Kiran Bedi, Shanti Bhushan, Anna
Hazare, etc.

salient features of the Jan Lokpal Bill are -

1. An institution called LOKPAL in the centre and LOKAYUKTA in each state will be set up. These institutions will completely independent of the governments, just like the Supreme Court and the Election Commission. No minister can influence their investigations.
2. Investigation in any case will have to be completed in one year. Trial should be completed in next one year so that the corrupt officer, or politician goes to jail in two years max.
3. The loss that a corrupt person caused to the government will be recovered at the time of conviction.
4. If any work of any citizen is not done in prescribed time in any government office, Lokpal will impose financial penalty on guilty officers, which will be given as compensation to the complainant. So, you could approach Lokpal if your ration card or passport or voter card is not being made or if police is not registering your case or any other work is not being done in prescribed time. Lokpal will have to get it done in a month’s time.
5. Election of Lokpal officials –
   What if government appoint corrupt and weak people as Lokpal members? That won’t be possible because its members will be selected by judges, citizens and constitutional authorities and not by politicians, through a completely transparent and participatory process.
6. What if some officer in Lokpal becomes corrupt? The entire functioning of Lokpal/ Lokayukta will be completely transparent. Any complaint against any officer of Lokpal shall be investigated and the officer dismissed within two months.
7. What will happen to existing anti-corruption agencies? CVC, departmental vigilance and anti-corruption branch of CBI will be merged into Lokpal. Lokpal will have complete powers and machinery to independently investigate and prosecute any officer, judge or politician.
8. The punishment would be minimum 5 years and maximum of life imprisonment.