Team Anna flays exclusion of judiciary from Lok Pal

 Disappointed over Parliamentary Standing Committee's draft report on Lok Pal Bill, Team Anna today criticised the exclusion of judiciary from the ambit of the ombudsman while opposing inclusion of NGOs and media in it.

Reacting to the panel's draft report, Arvind Kejriwal sought to remind the government of the Parliamentary resolution that led to Anna Hazare ending his fast on August 28, saying he hoped it would be respected.

"When Anna ended his fast, Parliament agreed to a resolution that stated clearly on lower bureaucracy and Citizen's Charter. We just hope that resolution is respected," Kejriwal said.

Opposing the decision to exclude judiciary from the ambit of Lok Pal, he said, "We were told that the corruption by judges will be handled in the Judicial Accountability Bill (JAB). It is not in the JAB. It is not in the Lok Pal bill."

Another activist Kiran Bedi called the exclusion of judiciary a setback as people "overwhelmingly" wanted judiciary in. "By this, corruption in judiciary is covered nowhere, neither in JAB nor in Lok Pal," she told PTI.

Expressing apprehension over the inclusion of NGOs and media under the Lok Pal's purview, he said this would make matters "more confusing".

"We fully agree that there is a lot of corruption in NGOs as well as in the media, but Lok Pal as it was envisioned since 1968 is meant to be an agency that will cover corruption as defined by the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA).

"To deal with NGOs there is a Registrar of Society and Trust Act. We need to strengthen it but we demand inclusion of government-funded NGOs as they come under the purview of PCA. For media, Press Council should be strengthened," he said.

However, Bedi welcomed the proposal to bring corporates, media and NGOs under the ambit of Lok Pal.