Patna, Aug. 29: Lok Janshakti Party president Ram Vilas Paswan today said the parliamentary standing committee would finalise a strong draft of the Lokpal Bill. Paswan himself is a member of the committee.
Speaking at his party office, Paswan said: “We will discuss the Lokpal Bill that has come to the standing committee and we will make the best possible legislation on the issue and make sure it eliminates corruption. At the same time I would say that the way the resolution has been passed by the Parliament is not correct. The party does not support the tactics in which it has been accepted after the campaign of Anna Hazare.”
He added: “We also have a strong Constitution which defines the rights and responsibility of every citizen but the way the resolution on Hazare’s insistence was not correct. We condemn the process of Anna’s team. It’s an attack on the supremacy of the Parliament.”
“Will we abide if a few RSS workers assembled to force us to make a law of their liking?” Paswan asked.
About the time frame for finalising the draft of the bill, Paswan said history cannot be made in just a day and it takes time. In a similar way, it will take around three to four months to look into the various aspect of the proposed bill before making a recommendation to the government.”
Paswan also attacked other parties including the Congress, JD(U) and BJP and said none of these parties have a clear stand on the bill.
Paswan said he would submit a memorandum before the committee to give reservation to minorities in the draft of Lokpal Bill. Making allegation on chief minister Nitish Kumar, he said there is major corruption in Centre-sponsored schemes like Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) in Bihar.
“Seven lakh houses were supposed to be constructed last year but very few have been built. It seems the money of IAY has been appropriated by the leaders. The claims of Nitish Kumar regarding development in the state are totally false. First, he showed artificial respect for the Muslim community but everyone knows what happened in Forbesganj, where five Muslims were killed, including a pregnant woman,” he said.
He added: “Nitish started campaigning for Dalits but recently five Dalit family members committed suicide when Rs 20,000 of IAY deposited in their account were fraudulently withdrawn by government officials.”
