By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The amended Lokpal Bill which was passed in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday by a voice vote has earned criticism here in the state.
Terming it as a “weak” bill, many opinion makers have said that the bill should have been strong right from the word go instead of amending it in due course of time.
President, Mait Shaprang Movement Michael Syiem said that the main concern is whether the Lokpal will have its own investigating body with or without the CBI.
“With CBI in it or not, the Lokpal Bill that was passed in the parliament will investigate cases only that is 7 years old whereas in RTI it is 25 years. The Lokpal did not even get a constitutional status and the Lokpal body will have 50% people from the judiciary – where there is pending court cases due to a slow judicial process. There should have been more social activists in the body instead of the judicial background candidates and I don’t think it will be a strong act.”
He further added that his movement’s main concern is to fight for a Lokayukta in the state.
“Our main concern is to fight for our own Lokayukta in the state now since the 2002 Lokayukta passed by the government was a weak one,” he said.
Chief Information Commissioner, Meghalaya CD Kynjing said that there are lot of conflicting reports so far on the Lokpal. “Whether the CBI will be in Lokpal or not has to be seen in the right perspective since the CBI will definitely not only investigate cases for Lokpal since it has other domains too be it theft and other complicated cases. So it cannot be under Lokpal,” he said.
Kynjing also said that there are some permanent government records that have to be made public depending on the case if somebody has sought for information under RTI, on the timeframe of cases to be investigated under Lokpal and information sought under RTI.
“But there are also some records that need to be destroyed after 20 years or so by the government depending on the matter,” he said.
Leader of Opposition Conrad Sangma said that there are many negative and positive sides to the bill but it is important that parliament has gone ahead and passed the bill but it has to be seen now what happens in Rajya Sabha.
“I see that there are lots of points that have been incorporated in the bill and the big thing now is the implementation part which is very important,” said Sangma. He also said that such bills will have lots of pros and cons and it can be amended in the future.
BJP General Secretary Dipayan Chakraborty “I don’t know why Dr Manmohan Singh and the UPA Chairperson is so much against including the investigating agency like CBI under the purview of Lokpal.
If Dr Singh is serious about the people of his country then the Lokpal should have these agencies under its ambit.” Chakraborty has also criticized the formation of the Lokpal body with judicial background people.
“The government cannot enforce it upon people. The parliamentarians should have debated these issues and been considered instead of throwing it in the hands of the people.”