Lokpal Bill should be given more teeth: Ramdev

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev today appealed to the government to arm the Jan Lokpal Bill with more power to punish the corrupt, saying it should not go the way of Lokayukta Act which he described as toothless.

The Bill, which is an important step to root out corruption should not go the way of Lokayukta Act, which is toothless, Ramdev told reporters here.

"With all due respect to Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde, he cannot take any big step against the Chief Minister and even the officers who have been indicted by the Lokayukta and suspended are later reinstated," he said.

The Lokpal should enjoy autonomous status like Supreme Court and help anyone file an FIR against the corrupt, he said.

The Prime Minister must be brought under ambit of the legislation and it should have provisions for recovery of unaccountable income and assets of the corrupt irrespective of their position and those found guilty should be punished with life imprisonment or death penalty, he said.

Refusing to be drawn into a controversy on the committee set up to draft the Jan Lokpal Bill, he said "it is a long and sustained struggle against corruption. I do not want this struggle to get derailed by making some comments. I reserve my comments for the time being and only want the committee to work in the right direction".

On his reported tiff with Anna Hazare, Ramdev said he always respected Hazare as an "elderly and a right thinking person". "There is mutual trust between us. I hope the trust always remains."

Ramdev said he would launch a nationwide agitation through his Bharat Swabhiman Movement from June one demanding withdrawal of higher denomination of currency to check circulation of black money.

He wanted the government to make it mandatory for those who have money parked in foreign banks to declare them and also to close the Mauritius route, which is a haven for tax evaders.