By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : In response to the central government’s questionnaire on the proposed anti-graft Lokpal bill, Orissa said it does not intend to limit its suggestions to the issues raised by the latter at this stage, official sources said Wednesday.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik wrote to union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Tuesday on the matter, an official in the chief minister’s office here told IANS.
Mukherjee last month wrote to all chief ministers seeking their suggestions on the proposed bill. Patnaik received the letter June 3.
The letter contained questions on whether the prime minister and the higher judiciary should be brought under the purview of the Lokpal and whether the bill should deal with only the Lokpal (at the centre) or also the Lokayuktas (in the states).
“It is suggested that the union government may finalise the draft of the Lokpal legislation on which we will be able to give our views. The appropriate time to do this will be before the presentation of the bill in parliament,” Patnaik said in his letter.
“I would like to mention here that we would like to give our views on the entire bill and not restrict ourselves to the six issues that have been given in the questionnaire,” Patnaik said.
The central government’s letter followed the setting up of a joint drafting committee for the Lokpal bill. The panel was formed after a 97-hour fast by social reformer Anna Hazare in New Delhi in April.