Parliament panel seeks time to clear Lokpal bill

Parliament's standing committee on law and justice, which is examining the Lokpal bill for an anti-corruption watchdog, has sought another week to submit its report. The committee, headed by Abhishek Manu Singhvi of the Congress, was supposed to submit its report before Parliament by 7 December.

Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari has asked Singhvi to meet him on Tuesday and explain the need for the extension.

This has come at a time when 'Team Anna' – the anti-corruption brigade led by veteran social activist Anna Hazare - has decided to step up its attack on the government over the passing of a strong Lokpal bill.

On Sunday, former policewoman Kiran Bedi, a key member of Team Anna, flagged off a car-and-bike rally from Rajghat in the capital. The rally of 400-odd cars and bikes was to protest the Singhvi-led committee's move to exclude lower level bureaucracy from the ambit of the Lokpal bill.

Bedi said such rallies will be held in the other cities too. ''We want people to know that the government has gone back on its promise, and is adamant on its own version of the Lokpal. They have gone back on whatever the prime minister and Parliament had promised - by keeping the Central Bureau of Investigation under their control they have shown that they are not serious about tackling corruption. It's a useless Lokpal. It seems whatever Anna fasted for has been wasted,'' she said.

The standing committee meanwhile said the constitutional provision that provides safeguards against summary dismissal to more than three crore central and state government employees across the country needs to be reviewed.