Lokpal alone will not remove corruption: JD-U

The Lokpal bill alone would not be sufficient to remove corruption and other issues like social inequity and consumerist culture would have to be addressed too, a JD-U leader said Tuesday.

"The government will not be able to deal with corruption by the Lokpal bill alone, social inequity which leads to corruption will have to be tackled too," Janata Dal-United leader Shivanand Tewari said while taking part in a debate in the Rajya Sabha on the Lokpal Bill.

"We support the bill," he said.

Tewari blamed the increasing consumerist culture in society and the public-private projects for breeding corruption.

"The consumerist culture is being promoted in country. Most development is taking place through the public-private participation and leads to corruption," he said.

Tewari pointed out that many parliamentarians come in expensive cars and this may induce a desire among others to own such cars.

He said the government should take action to deal with corruption whenever an issue rises and not later on.

"I had requested the prime minister to take action when reports of corruption in CWG 2010 were coming out. The Congress suffered because of it in Delhi polls. Why could action not be taken in time," asked Tewari.

He said the anti-graft Lokpal should have been formed after Independence to curb corruption levels prevalent today.

RTI activists, who expose corruption through the law, were being killed in many states, he said.

The JD-U leader said the panchayati raj bill pursued by former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi should have been passed during the time of first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.