Lokpal to be discussed after April 22 in Parliament: Minister

The contentious anti-corruption Lokpal bill will come up for discussion next month in Parliament after the ongoing one-month recess of the budget session, Union Minister V Narayanasamy said today.

"The contentious Bill, Lokpal, we are trying to pass in the Parliament. The government has done a lot on Lokpal. The Bill has been passed in Lok Sabha. It went to Rajya Sabha, from there it was sent to a select committee.

"The committee gave its recommendation and now I have requested discussion on the Bill in Rajya Sabha. After April 22, we are ready to discuss on it," Narayanasamy told reporters during National Editors' Conference here.

The budget session, which began on February 21 and is having a month-long break from March 22 to April 22, will conclude on May 10.

Narayanasamy, who is Minister of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, also said that the successive governments for past 30 years have tried to pass the Lokpal which is being wrongly considered as an outcome of agitation led by anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare and others.

"The impression has been created that Anna Hazare and others wanted the Lokpal Bill to be brought. This impression had come into the minds of people may be through electronic media and print media, the kind of projection you have given to them.

"I would like to correct it slightly. This was not the initiative taken by them. In fact, successive governments for the last 30 years have tried this. Several bills were brought before the Parliament and it could not be passed because there was no unanimity," he said.

Narayanasamy said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had constituted a Group of Ministers on anti-corruption measures, months before Hazare started his agitation, to consider various matters including legislative and administrative to tackle corruption and improve transparency in the governance.

"The GoM has been discussing on it," he said.