Mumbai, Oct. 10: A group of citizens and business leaders today issued an open letter urging “the urgent passage of a well-crafted Lokpal bill” but did not mention Anna Hazare or his version of the anti-corruption legislation.

The group appeared to suggest the current Lokpal bill was limited in its scope but still termed it a “small but critical step” in the battle against corruption. Its view of Hazare’s proposed Jan Lokpal bill remained unclear.

“It is imperative, however, that legislative reforms be constructively and constitutionally debated in a time-bound and orderly manner and not in uncivil and hostile environments,” said the letter, addressed just to “leaders”.

“Disruption, both in Parliament and outside, is socially debilitating and erodes public confidence,” it added.

Among the signatories were Azim Premji of Wipro, Deepak Parekh of HDFC Bank, Anu Aga of Thermax, Jamshyd Godrej of Godrej & Boyce, former RBI governor Bimal Jalan, Mahindra patriarch Keshub Mahindra, and Justices Sam N. Variava and B.N. Srikrishna.

The letter said the Lokpal bill was aimed at addressing “episodic corruption” but was unlikely to have a significant impact on “insidious and demeaning” day-to-day graft.

“We support the need for the urgent passage of a well-crafted Lokpal bill by Parliament.... We, however, believe that the Lokpal bill is only one small but critical step in the national task of weeding out the plague of corruption in India,” it said.

The group made a specific suggestion to follow a UK law in making it punishable to “offer, receive and fail to prevent bribery”.

This was the group’s second open letter this year. The first, issued on January 17, had focused on the growing governance deficit, rising corruption, environmental challenges, and the need to distinguish between “dissent” and “disruption”.

Today, the group also called for land, judicial, electoral, police and economic reforms, and said more judges needed to be appointed and fast-track courts set up to properly implement the Lokpal bill.

The letter backed environmental protection, adding that delayed and deadlocked environmental clearances slowed down investment proposals and hampered economic growth. It backed online auction of natural resources.