PM calls all-party meet to finalise lokpal bill
22 Mar 2012
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called a meeting of all party leaders in the Rajya Sabha on Friday to discuss the lokpal bill, which the government is reportedly keen to pass as soon as possible.
Anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare, who has spearheaded the movement for a strong anti-corruption watchdog, has threatened to re-launch his agitation with another fast from 25 March if the bill is not passed by then.
The all-party meeting will discuss amendments and try and evolve a consensus on the final shape in which it can be passed by the Rajya Sabha, where the UPA government cannot muster a majority on its own.
The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha in December during the winter session, but was scuttled in the Rajya Sabha after MPs moved for as many as 187 amendments, which the government said it needed time to study.
Parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal assured Parliament at the beginning of the ongoing budget session that the bill would be brought before the Rajya Sabha in the first half of the session, after the railway and general budgets were cleared.
Bansal also said fresh notices for amendments to the lokpal bill would be accepted as the earlier ones had lapsed.
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