By IANS,
New Delhi: The government’s draft of the Lokpal bill targets those who complain against graft, rather than the corrupt themselves, civil society members on the bill’s joint drafting panel said Thursday.
“The government version of the bill would provide no redressal for the common man, as there is stiffer punishment for the complainant than the corrupt government servant,” said a release from the civil society representatives on the panel – Gandhian Anna Hazare, senior lawyers Shanti and Prashant Bhushan, activist Arvind Kejriwal and Karnataka Lok Ayukta Santosh Hegde.
For example, if a special court concludes that the complaint is frivolous, the citizen faces a minimum of two years of punishment. But if the corruption charges against a government servant are proved, there is a minimum imprisonment of six months, the statement explained.
Apart from this, an accused government servant can file a cross complaint against the citizen straight to the special court, without any preliminary enquiry by any agency, saying that the complaint is false.
The government will also provide free advocate to the government servant to file this case, but the citizen will have to defend himself on his own, the activists pointed out.
“The government argued that the Lokpal would get overwhelmed with too many cases if all public servants, about 40 lakh central and 80 lakh state government officials, are brought under its ambit,” it added.
The government thus restricted the jurisdiction of the Lokpal to around 65,000 group A officers who are above the level of joint secretary.
The civil society questioned how most public servants can be left out of the Lokpal’s purview, while bringing NGOs within its ambit.
“In a remote village, if a group of youngsters detects corruption in panchayat works using RTI (Right to Information Act), the youngsters can be hauled up by the Lokpal, but the Lokpal would not have jurisdiction over sarpanch or the block development officer (BDO) or their corruption,” the statement said.
The civil society group said that the Lokpal would be able to haul up activists from organisations representing farmers, labourers or tribals, but it will not have jurisdiction over lower-level government officials.