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New draft of Lokpal bill soon: PM

Voicing serious concern over rampant corruption breeding contempt for law, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee Monday said the government would soon enact the Lokpal Bill with adequate powers to deal with charges of corruption, including those against prime minister.

''We stand committed to this promise. A Group of Ministers has been working on a new draft of the Lokpal Bill. This will be introduced in Parliament soon,'' Vajpayee said inaugurating the Sixth Conference of Lokayuktas and Upa-Lokayukthas in New Delhi.

Several attempts were made in the past to enact the Lokpal legislation. But these did not yield desired results as most of the earlier Lokpal Bills lapsed consequent upon the dissolution of the respective Lok Sabhas, he said.

Stating that corruption was not only an enemy of development, but also a foe of democracy, the prime minister said that the Centre had taken several steps to strengthen the institutional mechanism to check corruption and to ensure probity in public life.

The government was examining the recommendations of the Joint Committee of Parliament that went into various provisions of the Central Vigilance Commission Bill, he said.

To ensure that free flow of information was available to the public, the government had already introduced the Freedom of Information Bill, 2000, in the Lok Sabha and this had been referred to a Select Committee, Vajpayee said adding ''when enacted, it will go a long away in bringing in greater transparency in governance''.

The prime minister said that over the past few decades, rampant corruption has bred contempt for the law. The failure to catch the corrupt and then to deliver deterrent punishment to them has led to widespread cynicism among the people, resulting in a decline in moral values throughout society.

''We have pledged to give the people a stable, honest and corruption-free government, capable of delivering all-round development. We have further committed that the principle of ''Zero Tolerance'' would apply while dealing with corruption,'' Vajpayee said.

Stating that the mechanism of redressal in Lokayuktas had not lived up to the people's expectations, though it was not the fault of the Lokayuktas, he said that the time has come to seriously review the working of the Lokayuktas so far.

The prime minister said there was also need for an uniform legislation for Lokayukta as the chief minsiters fall within the ambit of the Lokayukta and in others, they were outside its purview. There was also lack of uniformity in the jurisdiction of the Lokayuktas over members of the state legislatures, he said.

Vajpayee said that though economic reforms had significantly helped in creating more openness and accountability in the system, there was still an urgent need to create a hassle-free environment for businesses, especially small businesses.

''Experience has shown that our efforts to strengthen probity in civil service and the polity cannot yield desired results without extending the norms of accountability to the judiciary. The inability of our judicial system to deliver speedy justice has itself become the source of much injustice,'' he said.

Lauding the role of media for creating mass awareness and mobilising public opinion against corruption and misuse of power, the prime minister, however, said, ''There have often been times when the media has not been truthful to facts. Maligning persons in political life, without evidence and often on the basis of hearsay, does not help - rather, it hurts - our democracy''.

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