Fresh Team Anna stir in offing as draft bill disappoints

Former policewoman Kiran Bedi, a key team member of Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement, has expressed disappointment with the draft report of the standing committee of Parliament on the lokpal bill, meant to create a strong anti-corruption watchdog.

"This is going back on the commitment and will call for mass movement again,'' Bedi told PTI.

The standing committee report, accessed by sections of the media, has left out some of the key proposals of the bill as envisaged by 'team Anna', as Hazare's core team has become known.

For example, the final draft declares that the lokpal will not have jurisdiction over junior (group C and D) bureaucrats.

"This means people will have no relief from the nearly Rs30,000 crore that is looted from schemes aimed at providing subsidised food to the poor," Arvind Kejriwal, another team Anna member, said today.

The parliamentary panel has also recommended keeping the judiciary and the conduct of MPs inside Parliament out of the lokpal's purview; and has rejected the demand for putting the anti-corruption wing of the Central Bureau of Investigation under its jurisdiction.