The AAP govt has maintained that the bill will be a revised version of the 2014 Jan Lokpal Bill draft that had emerged out of the Anna Hazare movement
If insiders in the AAP government are to be believed, the ongoing Winter Session of the Delhi Assembly is all set to repeat February 2014’s contentious debate on the introduction of the proposed Jan Lokpal Bill. There are indications that the Kejriwal government is planning to introduce the proposed bill without getting it approved either by the Centre or lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung.
The AAP government has reportedly tasked the job of drafting the Lokpal Bill to the administrative reforms department. A highly-placed source said that the AAP government was yet to get comments on the bill from finance, planning and law departments.
The AAP government has maintained that the bill will be a revised version of the 2014 Jan Lokpal Bill draft that had emerged out of the Anna Hazare movement. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had resigned from government after a 49-day stint when the BJP and the Congress joined forces against its tabling, saying the move was “unconstitutional” as the draft did not have the consent of the L-G.
With both the Congress and the BJP mounting pressure on the chief minister to get the Lokpal Bill cleared at the earliest, the source said that the AAP government was again planning to introduce the bill in the ongoing Winter Session of the Assembly. “The government strategy will be to get the bill passed by the House first and later send it to either L-G or the Centre,” a top AAP functionary told this newspaper. “The basic idea of the Lokpal Bill is to get maximum political mileage.”
As per rules, any bill which has financial implications can only be introduced in the Delhi Assembly after getting it approved by the L-G or the Centre. But the AAP government intends to bring in a strict Lokpal, which among other provisions, will also bring the office of the chief minister under its purview. The government is also mulling the idea to have a very limited role in selection of Jan Lokpal members with primacy being given to the views of retired high court judges and former Lokayuktas.
It would be pertinent to mention that more than a month after she was appointed as the Lokayukta of the city, former Delhi high court judge Reva Khetrapal is yet to take her new charge. After a lot of controversy, she was chosen as the Delhi’s Lokayukta.
