The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, has scheduled an all-party meeting on Wednesday, in a serious bid to end the nationwide protests and find a way out of the logjam caused by the controversial Lokpal Bill.

As social activist Mr Anna Hazare’s indefinite fast entered the eighth day today, the Government was clearly on a fire-fighting mode, with the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, holding hectic parleys with Ministers Mr Sharad Pawar and Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh, both of whom are from Maharashtra, a State from which Mr Hazare hails.

The Maharashtra Additional Chief Secretary, Mr U.C. Sarangi, had held three rounds of talks with Mr Hazare in the last few days and is now back to Mumbai.

Earlier in the day, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Ms Sushma Swaraj, slammed the Government in the Lower House for its inept handling of corruption issues. She said that the nationwide protests being seen in the recent days were the culmination of corruption resorted to by the Government.

“Scams after scams are being revealed. Adarsh society followed by 2G spectrum, CWG, Air India and now the KG Basin. People are facing the brunt of price rise and ministers are looting crores. People are saying crores are stashed in foreign banks and here there are no funds to build village roads and gutters in urban areas.

At such a time, the Lokpal envisaged in the Bill brought out by the Government has neither teeth nor eyes. It is totally ineffective,’’ she said.

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