By IANS,
New Delhi : An agreement may have been reached between the government and civil society leaders on formation of a joint committee to draft a stronger anti-graft Lokpal Bill, according to indications here after another round of talks Friday evening.
The government started talks with the civil society leaders after veteran Gandhian Anna Hazare became the catalyst of a mass movement against corruption with his fast-unto-death to demand a stringent anti-corruption bill.
“We are going with the (government’s) draft to Anna (Hazare), who will take the decision and announce further… I can only say that you will be happy to hear it (the decision). I can only give this indication,” Swami Agnivesh told reporters after talks with Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal Friday evening.
Social activists Swami Agnivesh, Arvind Kejriwal and former top cop Kiran Bedi earlier held their third round of talks with Sibal, the government’s representative, following the initiation of dialogue Thursday.
“In the afternoon, we received one draft from the government. We sent our draft. We came here to discuss it. The government (then) gave another draft, which we are taking to Anna for the final decision,” he said.
The government has agreed to form a joint committee to draft a new bill and also have an equal number of representatives from the government and civil society on the panel.
However, there has been no consensus on who would head it and whether an official notification would be issued on the formation of the committee.
In the evening, Anna Hazare announced that joint panel will have two chairpersons, but continued to remain adamant on the notification.